Power of the Stone
by DrawnInTwilight
Summary: Picking up where the show left off, the heroes are enjoying a strangely peaceful spring break when they discover there was a smaller prophecy before theirs. Are Archie's suspicions about the new girl right?
1. Chapter 1

_**Class of the Titans **__is/was a Canadian television show that does not belong to me! I'm just playing in the neglected toy box! Think of this as continuing the show into season three..._

_**Update:**__ Yeah, just noticed that the whole first page was missing. Not that it was important, but it kinda sets the scene and all..._

Chapter 1

There hadn't been a nicer day in a long time. It was finally warm again. Everything was green and in bloom. And a select seven were enjoying the day in the garden behind their dorm. Once in the garden, you'd almost never believe that you were actually in the middle of a large city. Instead it made you feel like you were at a villa in Greece. That was exactly how they liked it.

Jay, a boy of seventeen with wavy brown hair and a winning smile, was seated at an outdoor chess table. Across from him, his friend Odie was sitting with his chin in his left hand while his right hand ran over the dark dreadlocks atop his head. Odie was known as the smartest of the group, but that didn't mean he was going to underestimate his friends in a game.

Out on the small square of grass beyond the slate stone path through the yard, was Neil. The blonde teenager was happily lounged back on a chair to tan while sipping a glass of lemonade. Somehow he always managed and even tan. Or at least, when others weren't bothering him with water balloons he did.

"HEY!" He yelped as the burst of water hit him squarely on the forehead. He angrily whipped off his sunglasses and glared at the two standing beneath the large maple tree. "These are designer, you know? And water works like a magnifying glass! I can't have only speckles of tan!"

"Sorry, Neil," the redhead said, even though she didn't hide her grin.

Archie smirked at her, another water balloon in his hand. This caught her eye and she gave him a challenging look. "Wanna try again?" she asked.

"There is no try," Archie said, tilting his chin upward as Neil often did—though it seemed to be less profound with purple hair. "You're as good as hit, Atlanta."

Atlanta raised an eyebrow at him and, before he could even lift his hand, she was off at a run—going faster than any other known human. That didn't stop Archie, though. If anything, it made him more determined to with the water war.

He watched the blur of Atlanta dart around the yard several times before she slowed in front of the stand alone garage. That was when he threw the balloon. Atlanta was too quick, though, and was already gone before the water balloon could have hit her shoulder.

Instead, the bursting of the water balloon was accompanied by a shriek of surprise. "What the—!" Theresa pulled her long dampened reddish-blonde hair behind her ear before she caught sight of the stunned thrower and continued to yell, "Archie!"

"Woops," Archie said, with a small laugh and a shrug. "Sorry, Theresa. I was aiming for Atlanta."

"Yeah, great aim," Atlanta chided as she leaned against the tree.

Archie shot her a glare. Theresa took the distraction as an advantage, concentrating on the garden hose nearby. Instantly the hose came on full-blast and aimed itself, spraying both Archie and Atlanta with water.

Once again the air was filled with shrieks, including Neil's.

While the four were fighting for control of the garden hose, the last of their group came out from the kitchen with a large subway sandwich. He watched the fun for a minute or so, then wandered over to Odie and Jay.

"Check-mate," Odie said, swapping out Jay's piece with his.

Jay sighed and dropped back in his chair. "You beat me again," he groaned.

Odie shrugged as he adjusted his glasses and grinned. "No surprise there."

Jay rolled his eyes, then looked up. "Hey, Herry," he said. "Lunch?"

"Yep," Herry said, taking a large bite. Jay and Odie laughed.

"Isn't it great to have days like this?" Archie asked, coming across the pathway towards them. He, Atlanta, and Teresa were drenched, but smiling.

"Yeah, nothin to do but relax," Herry agreed and took another bite.

Jay said nothing, but it was easy to tell what he was thinking. There was no way it could be this quiet. It was a well known fact that the seven weren't normal. Few people actually knew the truth, but one who did was Cronus. An angry and evil god who'd been locked up for centuries, Cronus was determined to stop the seven before they stopped him from taking over the world.

Each of the teens had backgrounds, ancestors in what's thought of as Greek Myth, which gave them abilities surpassing all of their classmates. Atlanta had ties to Artemis. Archie was the descendant of Achilles. Herry was directly linked to Hercules. Theresa was related to the hero Theseus, while Neil was just like Narcissus and Odie proved he was a descendant of Odysseus.

Jay had found out on one occasion that he looked exactly like his relative, Jason of the Argonauts.

None of it added up, as far as he was concerned. He knew he had a tendency to over think things, but the lack of conflict over the past few days was leaving Jay anxious.

"Oh come on," Theresa's voice cut into his thoughts. "I know that look. It's ok to have a normal few days, you know."

"Yeah," Atlanta agreed. "Like a vacation!"

"Now there's an idea," Neil's voice came from his lawn chair. "Except I'd prefer a vacation in, oh, say, the Caribbean. Or any beach, really."

There was a murmur of agreement.

"You know," Odie said slowly, the look of a plan forming in his eyes. "We _could_ ask if we can use the portal..."

"Do you think they'd let us?" Atlanta asked, glancing at each of her friends in excitement.

"I don't see why not," Theresa said. "The least we could do is ask Hera."

It wasn't long before the whole group was in on the idea. Eventually Jay was even up for it. "Alright," he said finally. "Let's ask if we can go tomorrow."

...

She was tall, though not overly so, and had been dancing since she was three. She'd only been doing gymnastics for twelve years, but even so—running like she was now should not burn her lungs this badly. Her blonde hair was coming out of it's braid, making long strands of the golden color fly into her face every time the wind blew across her path. She was only glad that the hair directly above her forehead was cut short so she could see.

It took another half a mile, maybe less, for her to realize she needed to stop—just to get a drink, if nothing else. Her throat felt like it was charred.

To her left was a closed bakery and video store. On her right was the parking garage. Downtown was definitely a good place to hide.

Judging her options, she glanced over her shoulder. She couldn't tell if the monsters were still behind her, but it was probably better not to take chances

Her legs felt like lead, but she forced herself to start running again. She was going slower now, which wasn't good, but it only was only twenty yards or so to the garage. Once she ducked under the security bar, she forced herself to go further and hid under the up-ramp.

She closed her eyes and put a hand over her heart, hoping somehow that might help it slow to a normal pace. After a few seconds passed, she finally felt like she wouldn't gag on an attempt to drink some water and pulled out the bottle she'd brought in her backpack.

The luke-warm liquid almost made her gag, but at least it was there to race down her throat. Just a few more minutes like this and she's be ready for the next stretch. But as she finished a second gulp, a sound reached her ears that made her skin go cold.

"Harper?" a menacing voice called into the darkness of her hiding place. "Harper?"

She silently recapped her water and hid it away in her backpack.

"I know you're in there," the man growled.

Fighting down a shiver, Harper shouldered her backpack and shifted from kneeling to a crouch. If her instincts were right, she'd better be ready to run.

The ground shook slightly. Twice. One of the brutes were still with him. She didn't know what they were exactly, they were way too large to be human, but there was no way they could be anything other than human this far from New Olympia...right?

"You're trying my patience, Harper," the man's voice echoed through the empty garage. "I am not one you want to go against."

_As if_, Harper thought, making sure her shoelaces were tied tightly. She couldn't get out the way she'd come in, but at the far end she knew she could get to the bay. Maybe she wasn't the fastest runner, but she was willing to bet that she was better at sea than these jerks.

"I know what you want, Harper," the man said, she could hear his footsteps on the cement. "And I can give it to you."

The thought of running was blown from her mind. What she wanted? How could he know what she wanted? _She_ didn't even know what she wanted. Or, well, at least nothing that a person could give.

"I've been watching you, Harper," the man said. "I know you want to save your grandfather."

"My gran—." Harper covered her mouth, mentally kicking herself for slipping up. When she didn't hear anything, though, she breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe he hadn't heard her.

It was only too late when she realized that she was wrong.

The sound of her terrified gasp was no match for the deafening sound of the ramp being torn apart. The next thing she knew, Harper was being lifted into the air by a pair of very large hands to be held in front of a man who resonated power. She was sure she'd never seen him before, if nothing else she'd definitely have remembered the evil glint in his eyes. It was probably enough to give her nightmares.

"Ah, there you are, Harper," he said, a cruel smirk coming to his face. "I must say, you look nothing like your ancestor, Prince Hector of Troy."

Harper glared at him. "What do you want?"

"I have an offer for you," he continued, apparently at ease with having Harper dangling in the air. "And, if you value your grandfather's life, you'd be wise to do as I say."

"Where's Papa?" she demanded. "What have you done with him?"

"Oh, nothing," the man said with a chuckle. "At least, not yet."

"Yet?" Harper repeated. Her blood was boiling. Noone messed with her family and got away with it.

With one swift kick, she knocked herself out of the giant's hands. Landing on the floor, Harper's hand flew to the dagger in the side of her bag. She'd barely gotten it out of it's sheath when a flash of light threw her backward against the wall, making her crumple out of breath.

"Now don't get any ideas, child," the man said, somehow looking even more menacing as he approached her. He waved a hand and soon a larger giant held her nearly five feet off the ground. "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Maybe not, but all I can see is a grown man who's scared of a teenager beating him," Harper spat.

The man's eyes darkened, but he gave a forced laugh. "If anything, you should be afraid of what I can do."

Harper stared at him suspiciously for a moment, then stiffened. "Cronus!"

"In the flesh," he said, an evil grin coming to his face. "Now as I was saying, I need you to visit some old friends of your's."

"What are you talking about?" Harper demanded. Her stomach felt like it was twisted in knots and she was beginning to think her leg was cramping.

"I'm talking about you returning," Cronus said, starting towards the exit.

"Returning where?" Harper asked quietly while she was carried behind him.

Cronus let out a laugh that instantly made her not want to know.

"Why, to school, or course," he said, glancing over his shoulder at her. "Where else?"


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer:**__ Once again, just playing in the toy box—and borrowed a few ideas from Rick Riordan—I didn't create much of anything outside of the one who's causing chaos._

Chapter 2

"Oh no," Archie said firmly. "No way."

Atlanta put her hands on her hips. The others had already jumped into the water and trying to talk Archie into swimming was getting tiring. "Fine," she said, throwing her hands up in defeat. "Stay up here all day, then. I'm going in."

"Fine, I'll stay here," Archie said.

Muttering in agitation, Atlanta pulled off her sandals.

"How can you go into a river again anyway?" Archie asked, eyeing the area his friends were splashing around in with distrust. "After what happened last time."

"Because it's _hot_ out," Atlanta said irritably, then sighed. "Last time you tried to swim, we were near the ruins of Troy. We're in a Wyoming stream in the woods. Hera has promised that Scamander can't reach you here."

Archie didn't say anything. Memories of the last time he'd attempted to learn how to swim still haunted his dreams. Scamander may have been god of a river near Troy, but the god had a grudge against Archie's ancestor and Archie didn't want to test Scamander's power.

"C'mon," Atlanta said, sitting next to him on the towel they'd laid out on the bank. "I promise, even by that little waterfall, it doesn't go deeper than your chest—look at Odie! He's shorter than you and it's only to his shoulders."

He didn't admit that Atlanta was right, but he was beginning to relax a little. Maybe he'd been overreacting.

"Well?" Atlanta asked, holding out her hand to him.

Archie sighed and gave her a small smile. "Yeah, sure."

He took a few minutes to take off his sweat shirt and ankle brace, but soon Atlanta was dragging him towards the water.

"Look who's coming in!" she shouted to their friends.

The guys cheered and Theresa giggled. "Bout time!" Herry shouted.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Odie called to him as he started doing a backstroke.

"See?" Atlanta said, going into the water first. "Nothing to worry about."

"Yeah," Archie said, following her slowly. "Yeah, you're right."

He'd barely gone past his ankles when he stopped. Atlanta gave him a tiring look, but soon turned to follow his intense stare. Downstream, was a girl fighting a giant centaur and, from the looks of it, she was on the verge of losing.

"How'd we not hear anything?" Jay's voice asked from Atlanta's left. The taller boy had gotten out of the stream to see why they weren't in the water yet and was now staring in the same direction.

"It must be the noise of the waterfall," Herry said as he joined them too.

"That or the noise you guys were making," Archie said, already putting his ankle brace back on. The girl with the centaur did a flip onto one of the large river rocks, then sprang out of the way seconds before it's fist hit. The rock she'd been on exploded from the force and showered the river with shards of stone.

"She's doing a good job," Theresa commented, looking fairly impressed.

"Yeah, but who—besides us—has anyone heard of taking on monsters?" Odie asked. "The odds are impossible."

"So then, who is she?" Neil asked slowly.

"Doesn't matter," Herry said, a determined look crossing his face.

"Yeah, save her first, ask questions later," Archie agreed and finished attaching his brace.

Jay nodded and picked up the piece of metal which expanded as his sword. The others went for their weapons, if they had one, and followed as Herry set off at a run.

"Stop flipping around like that and I'll only maim you, girl," the centaur said.

"Gee, and I thought all scumbags lived in cities," the girl said, obviously not pleased with his attention.

"Such a delightful little spitfire," the centaur laughed as the girl avoided him again. "Perhaps I should ignore Cronus and keep you for a pet."

The girl gave him a look of disgust and back-flipped out of the way as he swiped for her, but landed badly and fell into the stream. She came up coughing and wiped her dampened blond hair off her forehead. It had only taken a few seconds, but it was enough of a delay for the centaur's hand to encircle her waist.

She let out a gasp as he lifted her into the air and struggled to free herself. The centaur laughed and looked down victoriously at his captive, but his attention was quickly drawn to movement on the ground. The seven heros had finally reached the fight.

The centaur smiled down at the new comers, specifically eyeing Theresa and Atlanta, but his eyes darkened when they fell on Herry. "Hercules," the centaur huffed. "Cronus warned me you'd be coming. Is this one your's too?"

"What?" Herry asked, not even hiding his confusion.

Odie's eyes, though, went wide. "Nessus? The river guardian?"

"The one who wanted Hercules's wife?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah," Odie said, still staring at the centaur.

"Let her go, Nessus!" Herry shouted.

Nessus laughed. "So you do claim her."

"Hey!" the girl shouted, her face going pink. "I can speak for myself!"

"Ooh, so feisty," Nessus commented, grinning down at her.

The girl glared and squirmed in his hand. Herry and Jay charged forward, making the centaur step back to avoid Jay's sword. Herry charged headlong into Nessus's leg, making him whinny in pain and kneel in the water. Atlanta fired at the centaur's forearm while Archie sent his whip around Nessus's wrist.

Jay took that chance to jump onto the centaur's arm and graze him with his sword. Nessus let out a howl of pain and released his grip. The girl let out a quick scream and dropped. Herry was quick, though, and caught her before she hit water.

"Thanks," the girl breathed, looking at him with shock and relief.

"No problem," Herry said awkwardly. She smiled meekly and tossed her braid of blond hair back over her shoulder.

"Herry!" Jay shouted.

The pair looked up to see Jay dangling upside down from the centaur's hand while Nessus himself seemed to be more interested in crushing Atlanta and Archie.

"Yeah," Herry shouted. "I'm coming!"

He quickly tried to set her down, but as soon as she put weight on her right leg, she crumbled sideways and landed on a large rock. Herry turned back to help, but she waved him away.

"No, help them," she said, pulling herself onto the rock. "I can deal with this."

Herry nodded, but looked to Neil who was still on the bank. "Neil, get her out of here."

"Oh, but my sandals!" Neil whined, motioning to his new footwear.

"Just do it," Herry yelled and turned to help the rest of his friends. Neil sighed and kicked off his sandals.

The fight didn't last too much longer, and eventually the heros had Nessus unconscious and tied up in some trees.

"Well, that should hold him," Jay said, tucking his sword into the pocket of his swimming trunks. "At least until the—uh—," he glanced at the blonde girl, whom Neil was helping, "authorities get here."

"Authorities such as in Hermes, Hera, or Zeus?" the girl asked. The heros glanced at each other and the girl smirked. "You didn't think you were the only descendants of heros left on the planet did you?"

"I, well, we—," Odie stuttered embarrassedly.

"Honestly, I don't think any of us had time to think about it," Jay said smoothly.

The girl nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," she said, checking the wrap around her knee. "I didn't realize it either until I moved back home. You must be part of that prophecy, right?"

"Yeah," Herry answered, smiling at her. "How do you know about that?"

She gave him a small smile. "I was part of one myself, a couple years ago," she said, and showed them her dagger. "Got this from one of my incredibly distant ancestors, Hephaestus—who I'm sure you know."

The elegant little weapon glittered in Jay's hands as it caught the sun.

"What's the design for?" Theresa asked. "It looks a little like the scroll used for the water symbol."

"That's because it is," the girl said as the dagger was handed back to her. "Another side of the family came from water—river gods to be exact."

"And despite that, Nessus still attacked you?" Odie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My ancestors don't control this area," the girl said simply. "And Nessus will go after any female who comes close enough. I just hadn't seen him there while I was swimming."

"What are you doing all the way out here, anyway?" Jay asked, knowing that there weren't any towns nearby.

"Besides swimming you mean?" the girl asked.

"In sandals?" Neil demanded, looking horrified. Jay couldn't help noticing his point, the girl was fully clothed in a deep purple tunic and capris—there was no way she'd been swimming.

The girl raised an eyebrow and smirked at Neil's expression. "Papa and I have taken to moving every so many months—to keep any monsters from picking up our scent," she said, turning back to Jay. "We've been hiding out in an abandoned cabin near here."

"Wait, you mean monsters follow you—even when you've been away from New Olympia?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah," the girl said and shrugged. "You get used to it after the third move. How are Athena and Persephone? Zeus still on clean-up crew?"

"Yeah, they're good," Odie said, rolling his eyes as he watched Neil—who'd started fussing over his sandals again.

"Speaking of which," Archie said, glancing at his watch. "We should probably get going. We told them we'd be back by four."

"Right," Jay said, then turned to the girl. "It was nice meeting you—uh—?"

"Harper. And it was nice meeting you, too," she answered and shook his hand. "Say 'hi' to everyone for me."

"Yeah, will do," Odie said, shaking her hand as well.

"Are you gonna be ok getting back?" Herry asked, glancing back at Nessus. The giant centaur was still unconscious.

Harper shrugged. "It's not that big of a hike," she said and pushed herself onto her feet.

Instantly a surge of pain shot through her knee and sent her falling into Herry for the second time that afternoon, but he easily cradled her in his arms.

"Where's your cabin?" he asked her.

"No, really," Harper said, trying to wriggle out of his arms. "I can make it."

"Maybe you should let us get you there, Harper," Theresa said.

Harper stopped fighting and sighed. "If it was still standing, I would," she said bleakly. "Your pal Cronus destroyed the place."

"Cronus," Jay repeated, instantly tensing up and glancing around.

"Wait a minute," Archie said, eyeing her suspiciously. "Didn't Nessus say something about ignoring Cronus instead?"

"To keep me as a pet, yeah," Harper said, returning his suspicious glare with one of her own. "What's your point?"

"Do you think, maybe he's after her?" Herry asked.

Jay mulled the thought over. "Could be," he said. "We can't really know for sure yet."

"Then what should we do?" Odie asked.

Everyone looked to Jay, their leader, and he pinched his chin in thought. "There's not much we can do," he said slowly. "We'll have to take her with us."

"What?" Harper and Archie yelped. "No."

The others looked at them and the two exchanged glances.

Archie rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "It's just that—."

"Really, I can handle it," Harper said. "Plus, if he knows how to find me, then it'd be really stupid to bring me with you."

"Yeah," Archie agreed. "What she said."

Herry, Atlanta, Theresa, and Jay shot him a warning look. Archie looked away sheepishly. Harper, though, looked determined.

"If I prove I can walk, will you let me go?" she asked.

Jay sighed and looked up at Herry to decide. Herry looked like he wasn't happy with the idea, but he did put the girl back down. Harper nodded in thanks and seemed fairly steady as she took a few quick steps.

"See?" she said after a few paces. "I'm fine."

"Really," Theresa said, clearly not believing her.

"Yeah, really," Archie said, clapping Harper's shoulder sportively.

But that set her off balanced enough to take another step. She gave a small cry of pain and was caught under the arm by Atlanta before she could go down. Instantly Herry was at her side to pick her up again as she cast Archie a scathing look.

"Nice try," Jay said, then waved to the rest of his group. "Alright, let's get going."

"C'mon, Neil," Odie called back to the blonde model.

"But my new sandals!" Neil cried as he followed them. "They're _ruined_!"

"It's not like you don't have twelve more pairs," Theresa said, rolling her eyes at Jay as they walked back towards the jet they'd borrowed from Hephaestus.

"I know," Neil said, folding his arms and pouting. "But that doesn't mean these were any less important."

Five of his friends groaned and even Harper rolled her eyes, but Archie walked quietly with his arms folded. Something didn't feel right about that girl, he just couldn't figure out what.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer:**__ Still just playing in the toy box! ^_^ Hopefully I can figure out what I'm doing soon enough... Thanks for the feedback!_

Chapter 3

"Wow, it's exactly the same as when I left," Harper sighed—now getting a piggy-back ride from Herry, who'd gotten tired of her squirming. "The same, but still, so... different."

"Yeah, we may have broken a few things," Odie said as he led the way from Hephaestus's garage.

Harper let out a small laugh. "Not surprising—I've broken, lost, and melted my fair share of utilities here," she said, staring around at the white marble of the central room. "And that statue of Zeus is as amazing as ever."

Jay smirked. On their ride back to New Olympia, Harper had been quiet and a little anxious—he was happy to see her expression break into an awed satisfaction with each step Herry took. Herry seemed to like it too as he took his time getting to Chiron's room.

"Oh, I don't need to..." The girl's quiet objection trailed off as Jay pushed the doors open, and Herry couldn't help noticing her stiffen a little.

The regular sized centaur was standing by his desk in the back of the room by a large window. Theresa cleared her throat as they filed into the room. Chiron looked up from his scrolls in surprise, but his expression quickly changed to amusement. "Bye Zeus's bolt," he said, smiling at them. "Look who has returned to our door."

Harper gave him a sheepish smile as Herry set her down on the lounge chair, which Chiron used as a medical bed. "Not on purpose, Chiron," she said. "_That_ I promise you."

Chiron chuckled and joined her with a tray of vials. "If I remember correctly," he said, setting the tray down. "You have a talent for injury. So what is it this time? Confront a siren again? Find a basilisk?"

"Close," Harper said, wincing as the centaur examined her knee. "Landed on a loose rock to get away from a river guardian."

"A river guardian?" Chiron repeated, opening a jar of strongly bad smelling ointment. "Aren't you related to a few of those?"

"Not Nessus I'm not," Harper said, folding her arms.

"We'll wait outside," Archie said loudly and turned to push Atlanta and Theresa out of the room.

"Hey! Archie!" Atlanta protested, but eventually all seven were back in the gods' lobby.

"Chiron wouldn't have minded if we waited in there, you know," Theresa said, eyeing him skeptically.

"Yeah, well, it's better to offer privacy," Archie said.

"Since when are _you_ the first to think of privacy?" Atlanta asked, folding her arms.

"Well it's not like she's _one_ of us," Archie said, receiving looks of disbelief. "Maybe she'd like the privacy."

"Whatever," Teresa said and turned to Atlanta. "Wanna come with me to tell Athena?"

"Sure," Atlanta said eagerly sprinting to the door. "She was going to point out the differences between the different archery bows she's got in her store-room anyway."

"Have fun," Jay called after them.

"Guess that leaves us guys," Archie said. "Anyone wanna grab a pizza?"

"Sure," Neil said, eyeing himself in his pocket mirror. "I could do with going out."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," a woman said from behind them. The five boys looked up to see the head goddess, Hera, standing in the doorway of her aviary. "I'm afraid lunch is going to have to wait."

...

"I'm glad you returned early," Hera said as the boys sat next on the two adjacent couches. "Where are Teresa and Atlanta?"

"They went to see Athena," Jay said and sat on the couch across from her. "But we bumped into Nessus—."

"I know, Hermes was just in here," Hera said. "And it sounds as though a former student has rejoined our ranks."

Odie nodded, smiling—the gods were always one step ahead on news, but they explained the days events for her anyway. Hera listened, watching them with a thoughtful expression, but for some reason, Hera didn't seem as happy as Jay had expected her to be.

"Well, I suppose it was smart to bring her here," she said after a moment. "But how strange that she should turn up exactly where you were..."

Archie frowned. "You think it was a set up?"

Hera hesitated. "I'm not sure," she said. "For Cronus to sit idly this long makes me uneasy."

"But he's not," Herry said slowly. Hera gave him a curious look. "It's something Nessus said—that he was ignoring Cronus's orders when he was attacking Harper."

"You mean Cronus gave Nessus the order to attack her?" Hera asked, raising an eyebrow. "But what would Cronus want with... Never mind. I've called you in here for a reason."

Jay watched the goddess curiously as she crossed the room to her desk. When she came back she was holding a badly wrapped cloth which made a faint thud as she placed it on the coffee table.

"This," Hera said, unwrapping the cloth, "is a blue Chalcedony, fairly rare and in astounding condition, and considerably powerful."

"Powerful?" Herry repeated, looking from the pale blue stone to the goddess with a raised eyebrow.

"Appearances can be deceiving," Hera said with a smile. "In this case, underestimating the gem's power could be a deadly mistake."

"What do you mean? It's just a stone," Neil said.

Hera picked up a book which had been sitting on the coffee table and started flipping through the pages. "You've heard stories, I'm sure, of ancient civilizations who found healing or protective properties in gemstones, correct?"

"Yeah, a lot of hocus-pocus if you ask me," Archie said. Jay, Herry, and Neil nodded in agreement.

"Not entirely," Odie said. "Recent scientists have been testing theories involving the vibration pulses given off by elemental supplements, specifically gemstones, and their effects on the vibrations given off by the human body."

The others looked at him in disbelief, but Hera smiled. "Ancient Greek society is no different," she said. "For example, Amethyst was developed when Dionysus fell in love with a nymph, to escape she went to Artemis and was turned into the stone. It was Dionysus who gave her the purple coloring and the power to protect, especially from alcoholism. The blue Chalcedony also has distinct roots in Greece—in the city of Chalcedon in fact."

"Okay," Jay said slowly as he processed the information. "So what does the blue Chalcedony do?"

Hera pointed to the page in her book. "There are many types of the Chalcedony stone, but blue is the rarest and most powerful," she said. "It can ward off negative magic as well as psychic attacks. In mortal hands, this gem is known to amplify physical strength as well as endurance. I'm sure you've heard of Napoleon?"

"And in the hands of someone like, oh say, Cronus?" Archie asked, almost fearing the answer.

"It would be worse," Hera admitted. "Much worse. Luckily we have managed to drain the properties from all other known pieces of the gemstone to a manageable amount for mortals before they caused too much damage."

Jay frowned. "So, you're saying—."

"All that magic has been encapsulated in this stone," Hera finished.

Herry exchanged glances with Jay. "And you're keeping it here because...?"

"Because the only one I would normally trust with matters this pressing is Iris," Hera said. "But with this dry weather, I have been unable to contact her."

"Why?" Neil asked. "Wrong phone number?"

"Iris is her personal messenger," Archie said impatiently. "She travels by rainbow."

"So then maybe she's in Oz. You know—_over_ the rainbow?" Neil offered, then started laughing at his own joke.

Hera rolled her eyes and Neil's teammates groaned.

"If I cannot find Iris," Hera said. "I will need you to find a way to get this gemstone to the only place it will be safe from Cronus."

"And where's that?" Herry asked.

"I will let you know if the time comes," Hera said vaguely, closing the book. "For now, we have the mystery of Harper on our hands."

"Yeah, and why Cronus wanted to attack her," Herry agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**__ Yeah, still playing in the toy box! ^_^ Forewarning, though, the only reason why the posts have been this close together is because I've got a good portion of this particular story written already, I can guarantee you it'll slow down after a few more chapters... Enjoy!_

Chapter 4

"I _know_," Harper's voice groaned from the livingroom when the boys finally got back to the dormitory that night. "Things got a little out of hand."

"Well at least being back, you can relearn strategy," Athena said, not even looking up as the boys entered the room.

Harper sighed and rolled her eyes. She was seated on the sofa in front of the window with a pillow under her bandaged knee while Teresa and Atlanta smirked from Athena's side on the larger sofa.

"Hey, guys!" Atlanta greeted them, still smiling—apparently enjoying the conversation she'd been watching. "Where have you been?"

"Library," Odie answered, dropping a pile of books onto the coffee table.

"Hera thinks Cronus might be after some blue rock," Neil added, sounding bored as he went to check his reflection in the television.

"A good example," Athena said. "Of research tactics."

She smirked at Harper who groaned again.

"If I find a way to leave, I will," she countered.

"Well, thank Zeus for Chiron's intelligent ways of keeping you grounded," Athena said and got to her feet. "The rest of you, make sure she doesn't try to sneak out—she was infamous for running off when her team was here."

"Why?" Archie asked, watching Athena as she retreated to the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

"I have work to take care of," she answered. "Watching heroes isn't the only job I have, you know."

"It's not?" Neil asked, looking absolutely surprised, but Athena was already gone.

Harper, however, was staring at Neil incredulously. "What did you think she was? Your personal housekeeper?"

"Well, yeah," Neil said, his expression blank.

His teammates exchanged glances as Harper raised an eyebrow at him. In all honesty, none of them had really had time to think about it.

"So," Jay said to break the silence. "Who are you bunking with, Harper?"

"Bunking?" Harper repeated. "Oh! Noone—my room's still here."

"It is?" Herry asked, stopping in midstep on his way to the kitchen. "Where?"

"Top floor, all the way down," Harper said. "It's strange. I didn't know that I'd left so many things here...SO—what's this about a rock?"

Jay and Teresa exchanged glances.

"It's not like she's going anywhere," Odie said, with a shrug. "And maybe she can add insight."

"Yeah," Atlanta agreed. "Plus, it'd be way easier than trying to not talk about it around her."

"I don't—."

"And its not like she's not one of us," Herry said over Archie's protest.

"But she's not—."

"Herry and Atlanta have got a point," Jay said, cutting off Archie.

"You guys don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Harper offered. "I mean, it's not like I'm gonna stay after my leg heals."

"You're not?" Herry asked, looking a little disappointed.

Harper blushed and gave him a meek smile, which broadened as she looked at the rest of the team. "Here," she said, pulling out her headphones, "I'll stick these in my ears and blast the Ambrosia Flight for the next ten minutes, fair?"

"No," Teresa said, "you really don't have to—."

"Don't worry about it," Harper said, already getting one earphone on. "I mean, it's not like Hera wants you to take care of the Blue Calcedony or something."

Archie, Jay, Herry and Odie stared at her, then gave slow nervous laughs.

"Hey," Neil said slowly. "You know, that sounds kinda familiar."

Harper's smile fell and she stared back at the boys in shock, her eyes flickering from face to face. Then she forced out a laugh. "You've got to be kidding me," she said. "She's really moving it?"

"Somebody want to fill us in on what's going on?" Teresa asked.

"Yeah," Atlanta said, "what's the big deal about the blue... uh..."

"Blue Chalcedony," Odie said.

"Right, that," Atlanta said, waving her hand impatiently. "What's so important about it?"

"You know those people who believe that gemstones have powers?" Jay asked.

Teresa and Atlanta nodded.

"Well, they're right," Archie said, folding his arms.

"Oh come on!" Atlanta said with a laugh. "You mean someone can become a superhero just by holding a rock?"

The boy shrugged.

"What?" Teresa yelped.

"It's not that surprising when you think about it,"Odie said, sitting on the armrest of Harper's sofa. "For hundreds and hundreds of years every culture has believed in at least one gemstone's power to bring protection or bravery or good health or—like with the Blue Chalcedony—."

"Heightens strength, endurance, and wards off other attacks," Jay finished for him, leaning against the foosball table.

"Other attacks?" Teresa asked.

"Magical and Psychic," Harper said. "Basically the stone can make someone pretty freaking close to impervious."

"Wow," Atlanta said, dropping back against the sofa. "No wonder she wants to move it. With Cronus around—."

Harper gave a dry laugh. "No worries there," she said. "Cronus can't use it. Powers don't work for gods just by holding a stone."

"But," Herry said slowly, "didn't Hera say...?"

"That if he got the stone his powers would be worse," Jay said, nodding in agreement.

"Well, yeah, under special circumstances they could be," Harper said, then sighed. "Did Hera tell you why my team was here?"

"We didn't get around to it," Archie said.

Harper met his suspicious expression with narrowed eyes before she turned to the others. "We were kind of a special task force," she said. "I mean, all descendants from heroes and all that, but it's not like you guys going against Cronus. Our job was to locate the concentration of powers—the world was expelling too much to be left in the hands of mortals or near creatures. Long story short—we're the ones who collected the powers into the main stones and brought them back to Hera. Or, well, Dionysus so that he could defuse the powers properly."

"Looks like he forgot one," Odie said.

"Or couldn't defuse it," Atlanta added.

"Not surprising," Harper said, her eyes focused on the table as her expression grew dark. "I had help with that one—it had the most out of all of them."

"Still does, from the sounds of it," Jay commented.

"And Cronus can't use this against us because...?" Archie asked.

"Because of the way we sealed it inside the stones," Harper said. "You can ask Persephone, we sealed it well enough to make it almost unbreakable as a diamond."

"Almost," Archie repeated. "So he can still use it."

Harper frowned at him. "If he figures out how, yeah."

"So we don't tell him," Herry said with a shrug. "No big deal. Who wants waffles?"

"Waffles?" Harper repeated, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I'm hungry," Herry said, shrugging again.

"When aren't you hungry?" Odie pointed out. The others laughed as Herry smirked and gave another shrug.

"Athena'll flip if you eat this close to dinner," Atlanta pointed out.

"Aww," Herry groaned. "Not fair."

This brought another round of laughter.

"C'mon, I'll race you around the block then," Harper offered, pulling herself upright.

"You?" Atlanta asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Race?"

Harper smirked and pulled out a pair of crutches. "Don't let my knee fool you," she said, her eyes twinkling. "I'm really very fast on these."

"Yeah right," Archie scoffed, earning him disapproving looks from Jay and Atlanta.

"No one said you have to watch," Harper pointed out, getting up. "C'mon, Herry, last one to the park has to bake with Athena tomorrow!"

"What?" Herry asked, looking at her in confusion for a second, then he grinned. "Yeah, ok, sure."

Harper smiled and swung herself forward on the crutches. The others watched as the two quickly left the room and then pass by the front window.

"What do you think?" Odie asked, turning to Jay, who'd started tapping his chin in thought.

"I'm not sure," he said.

"About what?" Atlanta asked, sharing a quizzical glance with Teresa.

"Hera thinks Harper appearing is a really big 'coincidence'," Neil said, making quotations in the air with is fingers before deciding to inspect his nails. "I mean with Iris going missing and the stones and all I think she's a little 'high strung'."

"Iris is missing?" Teresa repeated, raising an eyebrow at Atlanta. "This could be bad."

"Well it's a good thing she's not planning on staying then," Archie said.

"Not Harper, Archie," Atlanta corrected. "Iris."

"There's nothing we can do right now," Jay said quickly. "If Harper helps us, then she helps us, but tomorrow we have Ares's weekly challenge to focus on. Once that's over, then we'll decide what to do."


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:**__ Still in the toy box! Only Harper came from my own imagination! Hopefully their shenanigans are entertaining ^_^ Enjoy!_

**Chapter 5**

The next morning, Archie woke up with a smile. Spring break wasn't over, but he had a training session for most of the morning, which meant the perfect excuse to show up his friends.

So he had a quick breakfast and shower before he ran out the door to get in some warm up time at the school's training room. That was where his happy day ended.

No sooner had he entered the training room, his eyes spotted a blur of purple on the rings hanging from the ceiling. He'd never noticed the rings before, but that just made him frown more as the purple blur continued to twirl and flip as she swung on the rings.

Eventually she stopped, noticing Archie, and let herself slowly drop on to the mat below with a wince. "Hey," she said, picking up her crutches and a towel. "I didn't think anyone was going to wake up this early."

"It's nine o'clock," Archie said with a shrug, dropping his duffle.

"It's nine?" Harper repeated, wiping her face with the towel. "Really? Wow, I'm getting rusty. I used to be able to do two routines before class. Extra training?"

"Warming up," Archie said, sliding on wristbands. "Why are you up so early?"

"I have a skylight and the eastward bedroom," she said with a shrug. "Sleeping in isn't an option."

"Yeah, I have a work out set in my room," Archie said, now sitting on the ground to stretch. Which wasn't exactly true, but he didn't want her to know it wasn't.

"Hmm," was Harper's response as she took a sip from a nearby water bottle. "Well, how's about a race? Since you're warming up."

"Nah, there's no point in beating a girl on crutches," he said.

"Beating me?" Harper repeated, raising her eyebrows, then she let out a laugh. "I doubt you could."

"Oh yeah?" Archie said, getting to his feet.

"Yeah," she said, tossing her water bottle back into her duffle.

"Alright," he said and folded his arms. "A lap around the track."

"Gloves off?" Harper asked, at determined look on her face as she glanced at the track. "Or are we playing polite?"

Archie mulled the option over. "Gloves off."

Harper gave him a smirk. "You asked for it," she said and went to the starting line.

"Yeah, I'll remind you of that when I win," Archie said as he joined her.

"Shouldn't you be resting your knee?" asked a voice from the door.

Archie looked up to see Atlanta in the doorway with her own duffel and water bottle.

"Just a friendly little race," Harper said. "Say when we can go, Atlanta."

"Uh... Go?"

Instantly Archie was off at a run, easily taking the lead, but when he glanced over his shoulder he was surprised to see her not too far behind.

"Watch it," Harper said, pulling his arm.

"Hey! What—!" Archie's objection was cut short as a discus missed his nose by an inch.

"You said gloves off," she said again and overtook the lead.

Archie stared for a split second, but it was enough to see how well Harper could move on crutches even while dodging obstacles.

Putting on a burst of speed, he easily caught up to her, but Harper wasn't going down without a fight and was able to keep pace with him as they dodged hurtles and other flying objects. They were on the home stretch when Archie tripped.

Harper glanced back at him and gave him a quick smile. Archie glared at her and pulled out his Hephaestus whip. One of Harper's crutches snapped and she looked at him in surprise as he pushed to his feet. Atlanta shouted at him in distaste, but he was too busy building up his speed again. Instead of hopping along as he'd expected her to do, Harper moved just as quickly as when her crutches were intact.

"And the winner is..." Atlanta called out loudly as they both collapsed across the finish line. "Nobody!"

"What?" Archie yelped.

Harper just laughed as she laid back and tried to catch her breath. "She means," she panted, "it was a tie, you half-wit."

Archie narrowed his eyes at her, but soon found himself staring at the glass ceiling while he waited for his pulse to return to normal.

"What happened to you guys?" Jay's voice asked.

"Ares already force you through training?" Odie's laughed.

"Nah," Harper said with a laugh, propping herself up on her elbows. "We were racing."

"Yeah, until Archie—."

"Tripped," Harper said, quickly cutting off Atlanta. "And I broke a crutch. But it made things interesting. Right?"

Harper had turned to him, with a look that asked him to play along. Archie hesitated, wondering how this could work against him, but eventually he nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Real interesting."

"I'm sure it was," Ares voice rang out. Archie looked up, then back at Harper who glanced at him then at the gods who were entering the room. "Harper was one of the most impossible students I've ever had."

"You weren't her mentor for long, though," Artemis pointed out as she and Athena came in behind him.

"Alright, enough chit-chat," Ares said loudly, then pointed to Harper. "_You_ to the pool. _You_—," he pointed at Atlanta and Odie "—are on ropes. _You_—," he pointed at Jay and Teresa "—are going on wall. _You_—," he pointed at Herry and Archie "—are making sure nothing gets near _those_ two—," he pointed at Atlanta and Odie again "—while Neil—."

"Couldn't I go to the pool too?" Neil interrupted, though he was busily adoring himself in his hand-held mirror. "I look much better by the pool than after a work out."

Ares narrowed his eyes at him. "_You_ get to play the hostage."

Neil looked up from his mirror in surprise, then smiled. "I'm good with that," he said, turning back to his mirror. "What do I get to do? Sit in a tree?"

He might not have been able to see it, but every on-looker inwardly groaned as Neil's chatter started to make Ares turn purple with frustration. Eventually Ares grabbed hold of Neil and pointed to the top of the rock wall where some miniature griffins that looked angry-or at least hungry. Between them was a bit of a crane system with a rope hanging from it so that something could dangle over the large rock wall.

"_That_," Ares said, "is where you're going."

Neil's eyes went wide. "_Me?_"

His teammates and Harper stared up at the rope. Then Harper gave a small laugh, patting Neil on the back. "Have fun with that," she said and turned to hoist her duffle bag onto her shoulder. "I know I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

Neil gave an unenthusiastic laugh, still staring at the rope he'd apparently have to hang from as Harper gave a parting wave to the team and hobbled through a door that they'd never really paid attention to. After all, most of their swimming was in gym class during school.

"Alright," Ares voice called out loudly. "Let's get a move on. I have a military conflict at eleven."


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**__ Still playing in the toy box—aka not much is mine. I hope everyone's enjoying it so far! I know it's taking a while to get up here, but hopefully I'll fix that soon! ^_^ Let me know what you think!_

Chapter 6

Hours later, all aching from their session with Ares, the team filed out into the lobby of the gods' headquarters.

"I don't know about you guys," Teresa groaned as she dropped onto the bench beneath the large golden statue of Zeus, "but I think I'll follow Harper's lead and damage my leg the next time Ares wants to have a spare lesson."

"Jay almost ripped his arm out of its socket trying to catch Neil before he fell," Odie pointed out. "He could probably get pool time."

"Yeah," Atlanta agreed with a tired nod. "Swimming is definitely more appealing."

"Uh, no," Archie said.

"Are you kidding? A_ hydra_ would be more appealing," Odie said, examining his rope-burned hands.

"Careful! _He might hear you_!" Neil whispered loudly as he glanced around.

Odie laughed and patted him on the shoulder while Jay joined Teresa on the bench. Neil straightened up and turned quickly, announcing something involving Miss Aphrodite and a manicure before striding away.

"Where _is_ Harper anyway?" Herry asked, swinging his towel over his shoulder.

The rest of the team shrugged, with the exception of Jay who's shoulder was still overly sore. Archie took a step for the door. "Who's up for the noon movie?"

"_Mashers 3_?" Atlanta asked, her eyes lighting up. "Oh yeah, definitely me!"

"I'm not a fan of the _Mashers _movies," Teresa said with a shrug. "I think I'm going to get some meditation in."

"Jay?" Atlanta asked.

"Heading to the Library. I want to read up on these stones," Jay said, his expression as serious and calculating as ever. "We might need to know more sooner than later."

Archie and Atlanta looked at Odie, who shook his head. "Sorry, I've got a new video game and it needs to be beaten."

"Good luck with that," Archie said smirking.

"How about you, Herry?" Atlanta asked.

"Nah, you guys go ahead," Herry said, his gaze turning back towards the training room. "I think I'm going to do some more stuff around here."

The remaining guys raised eyebrows at him, but Atlanta and Teresa exchanged knowing looks.

"Alright, see ya later!" Atlanta announced, giving Archie a shove closer to the portal, with Odie not far behind.

"You know," Teresa said as their teammates disappeared. "Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing the pool myself. Wouldn't you, Jay?"

Jay looked at her curiously and received a meaningful glance. "Uh,yeah," he said. "Yeah, I'd like to see it."

"Would you mind us coming along, Herry?" Teresa asked, smiling up at him.

"I-uh-sure," Herry said, feeling his face warm up. "Why would I mind?"

Teresa merely smiled and Herry quickly led the way, with Jay trailing behind them looking confused.

Behind the door Harper had taken was a large room built with numerous colors of marble everywhere but the floor, which was a strangely soft cement. Eight columns held up a ceiling of elegant squares which opened in the center for an immense skylight, which was only a foot wider in all directions than the pool it shown over. In the sparkling blue water was Harper, swimming at an incredible pace down the length of the Olympic sized pool.

"Wow," Jay said, staring around the room. "_How_ did we not know this was here?"

Teresa shrugged. "It's not like we have classes with Poseidon," she said. "Looks like she's used this pool alot, though."

"She has," a voice commented, making all three jump and spin to see Artemis sitting on a series of marble bleachers nearby. "It might as well have been a second home for her, don't ya know."

"What are you doing here?" Herry asked as the group joined her.

The goddess shrugged. "Athena has it in her head that Harper's gonna run away again," she said. "So I guess I'm on baby-sitting duty, ey? Now what brings you three out here? I thought you had taken enough of a beating in Ares lesson to have run screaming from here."

"Well, it _was_ tempting," Teresa said with a laugh. "But we wanted to see the pool. Water is good for muscle relaxation, right?"

"Uh-huh," Artemis said, glancing at Herry, who's attention was entirely focused on the water, and rolling her eyes. "I'm sure."

"We wanted to find out more about the stones," Jay said quickly.

"The stones?" Artemis repeated, narrowing her eyes at him with slight suspicion. "Now why do you want to know about those? They're gone already."

"Apparently not," Teresa said and quickly filled the Goddess in on what they'd learned about Iris going missing and the Blue Chalcedony resurfacing. Artemis's eyes widened to the size of golfballs, then she frowned.

"It was a stupid idea to begin with," she said when Teresa had finished. "What good comes from collecting the power into one stone? Woulda been better if they just deluded it or something."

Jay and Teresa exchanged glances.

Herry, however, had strolled over to the far end of the pool, keeping pace with Harper as she swam. When she reached the jump-off side and prepared to swim back, Harper opened her eyes to check the distance to the wall and let out a squeak of surprise as she fell back awkwardly.

She resurfaced again seconds later, smiling though she was still surprised. "I didn't know I had an audience," she said and held a hand out to him. "What are you doing here?"

"Never seen the pool," Herry answered and eagerly took hold of her hand. Harper blinked, again surprised as he easily hoisted her out of the pool and set her feet down on the concrete surround the pool's edge.

"Really?" Harper asked, rubbing her shoulder as she leaned back on the low diving board. "What do you think? A bit grandiose?"

"It—uh—looks like the gods' designed it, that's for sure," Herry said. Harper laughed and gazed around the room, her eyes eventually landing on the group sitting in a deep discussion on the bleachers.

"Am I being guarded or something?" Harper asked, turning back to Herry with a bemused smile.

"Huh? Oh, uh, no," he said.

Harper let out a laugh and shook her head. "Athena's paranoid I'm gonna run," she concluded. "Not surprising. I usually do."

She took a tentative step away from the diving board, wincing as she put weight onto her bad leg, but managed to get to the back of the board. Without being asked, Herry was at her side, letting her lean on him to climb the few steps to the top. She smiled in thanks, blushing deep red, and pulled her hand back as soon as she was stable again.

Clearing her throat and taking small steps, she glanced at the others again only to find that Artemis had left. "So," she said loudly as Jay and Teresa came closer. "Did you guys bring your swim suits?"

Teresa glanced down at her duffel, which had been with her on the trip to the river. "Possibly," she said with a smile. "But that's not really why we're here."

"Oh?" Harper asked innocently.

Ever on topic, Jay shook his head with a frown. "We need to know about the stones," he said. "Artemis says you did more than salvage."

Harper hesitated, staring out at the water below her. "Well yeah," she said, smiling even though it didn't reach her eyes. "We had some battles too—kinda turned into a capture-the-flag type of thing every now and then."

"And ill-effects of the stones?" Teresa added, watching Harper's reaction, but the girl was still hard to read.

"Harper, please," Jay said. "If we're going to protect the remaining stones, we need you to tell us everything you can about them."

The younger girl's gaze remained on the water as she thought. Slowly she took another step to the end of the diving board. "I can't tell you much," she said. "I wasn't the best at noticing what was from the stone and what was a person's personality. But I know someone who did."

"Who?" Teresa asked.

Harper let out a chuckle and shook her head, still staring into the water. "That moron, he _would_ hide them there," she muttered more to herself than the three watching her.

Then she dove into the water. Jay, Teresa and Herry looked at each other in confusion. An unpleasant thought struck Jay—what if she was hiding something?

In moments Harper returned to the surface, breathing hard but with a triumphant grin on her face. She reached her hand out to Herry. "A little help, Herc?"

Herry gave her a strange look, though he smirked and pulled her out of the water again. Under her free arm, Harper was cradling an elegant clay box.

"What is that?" Jay finally asked, raising an eyebrow at her as Herry set her down against the diving board and she smiled in thanks.

"This," Harper said, still radiating triumph as she held out the box, "is everything we'll need."

Jay, Herry, and Teresa exchanged blank looks.

"Pierce left things behind," Harper explained further. "Processing units, notes, geographically marked maps of locations effected—could you open this for me?" She handed the box off to Herry.

"Sounds like he didn't think things were over," Teresa said, watching Herry pull the elegant top off of the box, which crumbled instantly.

"Oops," Herry mumbled.

Harper didn't seem to notice, she had immediately started fishing the things she'd mentioned out of the box. "Ooh!" she gasped fondly and pulled out a small purple hand-held device. "My Geiger-counter!"

"For radiation?" Jay asked, his eyes wide.

The younger girl nodded as though they were talking about something as regular as a watch. "Modified, but yeah I guess," she said with a shrug, then glanced at the small white object Herry was holding. "Oh! And my sea-serpant fang!"

Herry nearly dropped what he'd thought was a sea shell.

"I wonder if he took my Harpie feathers too..." Harper plunged deeper into the box.

By the time Harper was done emptying the box, the three heroes found themselves staring at an amassed collection of Harper's mementoes and technology that would make Odie's mouth water. Harper, though, was frowning.

"I don't get it," she said, more to herself than to the others as she looked at the recovered items.

"Get what?" Teresa asked.

Harper shook her head, too deep in thought to answer at first. "Not all of this is mine."

"It's not?" Herry asked, looking at the numerous items again. "But you recognized all of it."

"Well, yeah, but this," she said, picking up a device that looked a good deal like her geiger counter. "_This_ one's Phoebe's. And those collectors are Ophelia's and AJ's."

Jay picked up the small tools that looked like small flashlights. How on earth did these collect things? But Harper was still rattling on about which items weren't her's. She pointed out a couple of canisters that looked more like scientific viles, some with little crystals in them, which apparently were specific to two other devices, neither of which were present.

"And my violet lenses aren't here," she finished, still frowning in thought. "Why would he leave the wrong pieces?..."

"What about these?" Teresa asked, holding up a pair of aviator sunglasses that had purple lenses. "They look a bit guy-ish, but—."

Harper shook her head and sighed. "I can't use them," she said. "Ike designed each of our sunglasses to suit our eyes—kinda like prescription lenses. These are Tyson's."

"What's so important about them?" Herry asked, taking the sunglasses from Teresa and putting them on to glance around.

"They helped us see the magic traces—the subtle effects of the stones," Harper explained, smirking at Herry. "And other things that are typically invisible to human eyes—and sometimes things that gods can't see either."

Jay raised an eyebrow at her. "That the _gods_ can't see?" he repeated. "Like what?"

"The underside of the stone effects," she said with a shrug. "Other gods."

"Other gods?"

Harper shrugged. "Some gods can make themselves invisible."

"Like Autolycus and the helmet?" Herry asked.

She looked up at him sharply. "Autolycus?"

"Yeah, well it was Hades' helmet," Herry said.

"Cronus had stolen it from Hades and gave it Autolycus at one point," Jay explained, though he wasn't sure that's what Harper was confused about. "He was trying to get his hands on one of Hercules' arrows."

"Oh," Harper said and quickly pushed herself to her feet, doing a fair job of hiding her wince. "So you met him then? Autolycus, I mean."

"Yeah, briefly," Teresa scoffed folding her arms at the memory. "While he was trying to rob my house."

Harper gave a small laugh as she dropped her team's possessions back into the clay box. "Well, that sounds right," she said. "He's the prince of thieves, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Teresa said with a laugh. "But he still couldn't get past us."

Jay watched as Harper quickly set the box on the floor and scrambled back onto the diving board. "Wow," she said, steadying herself to dive again. "Sounds like he didn't live up to history—or well, myth."

"No, he did," Jay said. "I just don't think he expected us to be... observant."

Harper hesitated, then turned to smile at them. "Sounds interesting," she said. "If you want to join swimming, I'd love to hear more. Go get suits on!"

"Ok," Herry said instantly, making Teresa giggle and Harper blush.

"Sure, why not?" Teresa said, still grinning at her teammate. "I could use a refreshing swim after Ares' session."

"That does not surprise me," Harper said with a laugh. "How about you, Jay?"

"No, you guys go ahead," he said, getting to his feet.

"Are you sure?" Teresa asked. "It'd probably help your shoulder."

Jay laughed and rubbed the shoulder in question. "Yeah, I have some things I wanted to look into anyway."

"Suit yourself," Teresa said with a shrug, then turned to Harper and Herry. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Ok!" Harper called after them as Jay and Teresa headed back towards the door. "Locker rooms are to the right of the bleachers!"

With that said, the blonde hair dove into the pool again. Herry watched until she resurfaced, then wandered off to the locker rooms.

At the door, Jay and Teresa picked up their discarded duffles. "A penny for your thoughts?" Teresa asked, fixing the strap on her shoulder. "You think she's lying?"

Jay glanced back at the pool. "Not entirely," he said. "But she's definitely not telling us everything... I think I'm going to talk to the gods, see what they'll give me."

"Well, good luck," Teresa said, patting his shoulder. "I'll keep my ears open here too."

Jay gave her a nod and a smile before heading out the door. Teresa continued to smile as she turned toward the locker rooms, a faint blush on her cheeks.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:**__ Still playing in the toy box—again aka not much is mine. I hope everyone's enjoying it so far! Let me know what you think! I promise to work more quickly on this!_

Chapter 7

When Teresa, Herry and Harper got back to the Dorm it was around 3 o'clock and Teresa hadn't learned much. Harper had apparently spent a good few years bouncing from one foster home to the next as a kid. She hadn't found her grandfather until she was thirteen and they moved to New Olympia—so she'd been found by the gods easily.

Apparently she'd also been the youngest in her group, though not the shortest—which Harper had been sure to point out. The shortest had been a girl named Ophelia, a descendant of Orpheus. Having met Orpheus on another occasion, Teresa couldn't help wondering how similar Ophelia was.

"I don't know," Teresa whispered to Jay at the kitchen counter, glancing back into the living room. Odie, Atlanta and Herry were enjoying a 1940's movie that Harper had found, but Harper herself had fallen asleep against the armrest. "She seems pretty open, but we could have learned most of that in a chart easier."

Jay looked thoughtful for a minute and a slow smile came to his face. "That's not a bad idea."

"What?" Teresa asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"Well the Gods are bound to have personal files on us, aren't they?" Jay asked.

Teresa shrugged. "It's possible, I guess. But they probably won't just hand them over."

"No," Jay agreed, then leaned toward her with a mischievous smirk. "But I think I know where a certain god keeps his old documents..."

...

"Thank you organization skills of Hermes," Teresa muttered in frustration barely an hour later, dropping the twentieth dusty file onto the pile next to her. Then she sighed and pulled the next one off the shelf.

She was sitting on the floor in Hermes' storage room, which they'd managed to sneak into, wondering why she'd agreed to go through files in the first place. It was actually a pretty large space and reminded them a little of the library combined with one of those case file rooms that they show on the investigation shows that Odie watched. It had taken them a while to find the right section, seeing as half of everything was in ancient Greek, but soon enough Jay and Teresa had tackled opposite ends of an isle that seemed to be the newest.

"Found anything?" Jay's voice called softly down the isle from behind his own large stacks of neglected folders.

"No," Teresa said with a groan as she opened yet another file, but a series of photos clipped inside the folder made her stop. "Jay, come look at this!"

"What?" he asked, looking up from a file from the 1980's.

"I think I found it," Teresa said slowly, holding up one of the photos as she started looking through the others

Jay leapt to his feet, knocking over one of his piles and trying not to curse as he tried to keep himself upright before he made it to Teresa-who hadn't looked up from the folder once since she'd called him over. He gently plucked the photo from her fingertips and examined it.

"That's Harper, alright," he said, taking in the image of the laughing ballerina. Even with her hair up in a bun, the eyes and bangs and necklace were all the same as the girl who was probably still asleep on the couch.

"So these are her teammates," Teresa guessed, moving so Jay could sit down.

"I guess so," Jay agreed, leaning over to look at each face.

There was a small girl with mousey brown hair that was sitting cross-legged on a bed with a white guitar and a far off look that almost seemed melancholy. Another picture showed a darker girl who could have been a model on the phone and, judging from the look on her face, it was a serious conversation.

"Hello handsome," Teresa mumbled, picking up the next photo in the line up. A tall boy with wavy auburn hair that covered part of his forehead as he smiled charmingly at the photographer from where he was working on a motorcycle.

"What?" Jay asked, handing back the dark girl's photo and looking at her in confusion.

"Nothing," Teresa said quickly, blushing a deep red before quickly filing it behind the other pictures.

Jay gave her a strange look, but went back to scrutinizing the photos. The next was off boy with spiked black hair and a sly grin as he held a skewer laden with gummy bears over a Bunsen burner. Next was a boy with long dark hair pulled back in a pony-tail who seemed very into playing a large set of bagpipes. After him was a boy lounging on the dorm couch with a game controller in his hands as he focused his eyes on the tv screen over the rim of his sunglasses.

There were two more photos. A group photo in the dorm's backyard, each in either a sport or club uniform, and another of them dressed in ancient Greek clothes while standing on a balcony with large hills in the background.

"Where do you suppose this is?" Jay asked, taking the photos from Teresa for a closer look. "Greece? Maybe?"

Teresa shrugged and went back to reading the file. "I don't know," she said. "Kinda cool that they're in costumes, though."

Jay peered closer at the photo. "It almost looks familiar."

"The costumes?" Teresa asked, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. "I thought you'd never been to one of the school plays."

"That's not what I meant," Jay said, but a smile came to his face anyway.

"I know," Teresa said, rolling her eyes, then held up the folder. "According to this, they brought back about forty different stones."

"Forty?" Jay repeated in shock.

"Yep, but look," Teresa said, looking over the list again. "All but eleven of them are marked as 'defused'. And one of the eleven remaining is the Blue Chalcedony."

"So Dionysis couldn't deal with the other ten either," Jay said slowly.

"That's my guess," Teresa said with a shrug.

"Looks like Harper's team went through their share of battles," Jay said, flipping the pages in Teresa's hands. "Not as many as ours, but they probably weren't the targets of a ticked off Titan."

"Probably not," Teresa agreed, but now she was fighting a new blush as Jay's attempt to look over the pages made him nearly lean on her to see the writing. His breath was a gentile tickle on her cheek.

Not that he'd noticed how close he was, but she definitely did.

Jay was frowning at one of the pages. "This doesn't sound good," he said after a few moments.

"What doesn't?" Teresa asked, wondering if she could adjust how she was sitting without bumping him.

He turned to face her. A look of surprise flickered across his face, which was quickly replaced by an embarrassed blush as he quickly pulled himself several inches away. "The, uh, sheet," he stammered, "It looks like they did some solo missions."

"Okay," Teresa said slowly, fighting back her own blush. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Well... no... I guess that explains why Harper has a liability of running off," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "But look—those missions were after the team was disbanded. And here, towards the end, only a few names keep coming up. Harper's definitely active. AJ and Pierce are on there too. But the other four disappeared."

Teresa skimmed over the numerous pages of mission reports. He was right, slowly as the pages became closer to recent, the members of the group involved dwindled. "Even Pierce is gone by the last ten."

A sudden sound of someone moving outside the door made both teens jump. But to their relief, whoever it was didn't come in. Jay pushed himself to his feet.

"Maybe we should go," he suggested.

Teresa nodded and let him help her up. "Do you think there's more?"

"More?" Jay repeated, quickly replacing the piles of folders.

"Well yeah," Teresa said with a shrug as she slid another group of folders onto the shelf. "You'd think there'd be individual charts too, this looks like it's just an over-view of their missions."

"Yeah, you're right," Jay said, looking at the files Teresa hadn't gotten to. He took a moment, then pulled the next seven files. From the pattern he'd seen so far, if there were individual files on the team, these would be it. "C'mon," he said, tucking the folders under his arm. "We'll look at these back at the dorm."

Teresa nodded, filing away the last of the unneeded folders. The last thing they needed was to be caught snooping through files.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:**__ By now you know the drill—Still playing in the toy. I hope everyone's enjoying it so far ^_^_

Chapter 8

Harper woke up to find the house a heck of alot quieter, and _North By North-West _was on instead of _A Philidelphia Story_.

_Must be a Cary Grant day_, she thought, which didn't bother her at all since he was one of her favorite actors. Not that she could stick around to enjoy it, she had stuff to do.

A grunt of irritation came from near her feet and Harper moved enough to see Atlanta leaning over a shoebox diorama with an unhappy expression. Biting back a laugh, Harper pushed herself up from the armrest she'd fallen asleep on.

"Sounds like Miss Clio's Literature class," she said with a smirk.

The girl on the second sofa jumped in surprise, then laughed. "Yeah," she said with a groan. "How'd you guess?"

"Only one teacher I've ever had who still gives assignments to make dioramas," Harper said with a shrug and a smile. "I had her for Freshman year. Romeo and Juliet."

"Lucky," Atlanta grumbled, turning her attention back to the diorama. "We have to work on Hamlet."

"Ick!" Harper said, making a face. "Well that's what happens when the Muse of history takes over literature classes."

"What?" Atlanta asked, looking up with wide eyes

"Want any help?" Harper asked, scooting down the couch to see the diorama better.

"Sure, it's not like you could make this worse than it is," Atlanta said, sliding the pitiful display across the coffee table.

"You got that right—no offense," Harper said, smiling sheepishly.

"None taken," Atlanta promised with a laugh.

Harper looked over the scene slowly. "Alas poor Yorik, I knew him well, Horatio," she sighed, falling back into the sofa cushions. "A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy—he hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is!—wow you've got one very dismal scene on your hands."

Atlanta, though, was staring at her. "You have Hamlet memorized?"

Harper blinked at the redhead for a moment, then blushed and bit her bottom lip lightly. "My friend hated Hamlet," she said meekly. "So the rest of us auditioned for the play when it came around."

"Oh," Atlanta said and laughed. "Cool! Did you get a part?"

A mischievous smirk came to Harper's face. "Four of us did, yeah. Me, Tyson, AJ and Pierce. I don't think Miss Melpomene ever wanted to see me again."

"What part did you get?" Atlanta asked.

The blush returned to Harper's cheeks and she raised an eyebrow at Atlanta. "I don't see how that's going to help the diorama," she said, turning back to the shoebox with a thoughtful expression. "What time period are you setting this in?"

"We're supposed to choose a time period?" Atlanta asked in surprise.

Harper laughed, happy that Atlanta's attention had shifted.

...

"And then—Woah!"

Jay barely kept himself from colliding with Harper as he opened the door to the dorm. Behind him, Teresa stared in surprise over a small stack of folders.

"Hey, Harper," Teresa said.

"Sorry," the blonde said quickly, flashing a smile though she looked a little shaken by the surprise.

"Where are you going?" Teresa asked, smiling pleasantly and hoping that would be enough to hide the files.

"Oh—uh—nothing," Harper said, returning the smile. "Just going out for a run. Atlanta and I spent the past couple hours working on Hamlet."

"Oh yeah, Miss Clio's project," Teresa said, rolling her eyes.

"Mind if I join you?" Jay quipped quickly. "I've been inside all day, wouldn't mind stretching out my legs."

Both Teresa and Harper gave him questioning looks—he'd been in Ares' training session, hadn't he? Eventually Teresa rolled her eyes, sometimes the rate of his ideas would send her spinning. "Sounds like fun," she said. "I'd join, but I probably should get going on homework."

"Right," Harper said, her smile faltering for a split second. "Yeah, hurry up and change, then. I'd like to be back to help with dinner."

Jay nodded quickly and let Teresa enter the dorm first, watching as Harper sat on the concrete railing to wait.

"Now what are you thinking?" Teresa asked as soon as the door closed behind them.

"That if I get her alone maybe I can trick her into talking," Jay answered leading the way to the stairs. "Files can only get us so far."

Teresa rolled her eyes. "Have you ever thought that maybe she's not hiding anything?" she asked as they made it to the second floor. "That maybe her team was disassembled because it was a quick job?"

Jay glanced back at her, but continued up to the top floor which they now shared with Harper. "Well, if she is, then it's better to know anyway."

Teresa sighed and stopped at her own door as Jay disappeared into his room. Boys, she thought rolling her eyes. "Alright," she said, leaning against her door frame. "I guess this means that I get to look through these?"

"Sure," was Jay's muffled response, followed by a clearer, "Maybe Atlanta'll help you. She probably doesn't want to do anymore homework."

Knowing Atlanta, that was probably true. "Alright," Teresa said again. "But this is probably a wild goose chase."


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N:**__ Same drill (about not owning much of anything), sorry it's taken a while to post/get anywhere in this story—I promise to get on that!_

Chapter 9

"Archie, _what_ are we doing out here?" Odie ask, swatting away the mosquitos.

"Yeah, you want to face off with Nessus or something?" Herry asked.

"No," Archie said, rolling his eyes, but he didn't offer an answer either. Odie and Herry's opinions of Harper were just like everyone else's. Telling them that they were going to check out her alibi would probably result in a serious lack of help.

Odie sighed, glancing around at the forest trail, wondering if they'd be here past dinner. Athena would have their heads. The boys followed what little there was of a trail until they reached a clearing. In the center there were the remains of a small log cabin.

"I guess she wasn't lying," Archie muttered to himself, recognizing the scorch marks on a few pieces of intact logs. "Cronus was here."

"Yeah," Odie said, nodding in agreement as he stared around the wreckage. Then he looked at Archie. "And, where's here?"

"I'm guessing this was Harper's hideout," Archie said, not facing his friend as he sifted through some of the rubble.

Odie and Herry blinked as the realization dawned on them and both of them frowned. "You mean you dragged us all the way out here because you're _paranoid_?" Herry demanded.

"Hey, I have my reasons," Archie said, tossing aside some splintered wood.

"Like maybe because Chiron said that she's related to water gods?" Odie pointed out, folding his arms and sitting on what might have been part of the door frame at one point.

Archie didn't respond. Instead he continued searching the remains for any other signs that this was really where Harper had been staying. She could have just seen this in the woods on her way to them, after all.

Eventually Odie joined his inspections—purely out of curiosity. He really didn't like being in the dark on anything, even if it was a new hero. Herry joined out of boredom.

"Hey," Odie called to the others as he searched the area by the fireplace. "I found something."

Archie quickly got to his side. "What is it?"

Odie sighed impatiently and so tossed him a broken photo frame. Inside the frame was a picture of two kids, a boy and a girl, and a couple that looked like their parents. All of them had wildly curly hair, though the girl had her hair in a braid and was smiling at them with a playfully mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Her family?" Herry asked.

"I'm guessing so," Odie said. "Granted, this is an old picture—."

"So it _could_ be somebody else," Archie said.

Odie and Herry frowned at him.

"Yeah, it could be," Odie said, then pocketed the picture. "And to disprove your paranoia, I'll run an aging program on it and show you it's her."

They only spent another half an hour at the cabin—even though it was summer, the surrounding trees were great at blocking out light. But they were able to find at least four more pictures (each one containing at least one girl who looked something like Harper) and a old teddy bear, which Herry insisted on taking with them.

As he begrudgingly followed his teammates, Archie mulled over what they'd found and everything it could imply. When it came down to it, though, he was torn between being relieved that she might be telling the truth, annoyed that his friends wouldn't let him stay later to check further into the wreck, and angry that he hadn't been right.

...

"So you mean there's probably charts like this on us in there?" Atlanta asked, sitting on Teresa's desktop with one of the team folders. "Isaac—aka Ike—is now seventeen... descendant of Icarus—didn't Icarus _die_ as a kid?"

"It was never really confirmed," Odie's voice cut in as he entered with a dust covered box. "Some people said he died when he fell into the sea, but others say he was rescued and eventually became king of one of the islands. And judging by what Dedalus did with his life, I wouldn't be surprised if he lived."

"There ya go!" Teresa said, gesturing toward Odie with a smile from near where she leaned on her pillows.

"Hey! Where've you been?" Atlanta asked.

"Proving Archie wrong," he answered with a sigh as he dropped the box in front of her weapons closet.

"Cuz _that's_ hard to do," Atlanta laughed, her eyes going back to the file in her hands.

"About what this time?" Teresa asked, glancing at Atlanta with a smirk.

Odie hesitated, shifting aside some of the files to sit on the low bed. "Archie dragged us back to Wyoming to do some fact checking on Harper."

"He's that unhinged? What was he expecting to find?" Atlanta asked making a noise of disgust.

Odie shrugged. "She wasn't lying," he said, glancing at the folder titles. "The cabin was in ruins, and you could definitely see that Cronus had been there—Why are we going through random old files?"

"I guess we're fact checking too, trying to fill in the blanks," Teresa said, lifting the file that was resting against her knees. It was the file for the boy she'd seen pictured with his motorcycle. She'd been absorbing it for the past twenty minutes, but Atlanta hadn't noticed so it didn't matter.

"Inventor, pyromaniac, drummer of the _Ambrosia Flight_," Atlanta read off.

"_Ambrosia Flight_?" Teresa repeated, glancing back at the chart. "That's mentioned in this one too—Pierce is the lead singer and guitarist."

Atlanta dropped Ike's folder and picked up another. "Ophelia," she read. "Eighteen, Orpheus... bass guitarist for _Ambrosia Flight_."

"They formed a rock group?" Odie asked, raising an eyebrow as he reached for a chart. "Phoebe, eighteen, Phineas,... yeah, here it is, keyboard, flute, violin and manager of _Ambrosia Flight_."

"So they were all musical," Atlanta said. "That's pretty cool."

"And they had a _lot_ of missions around the globe," Teresa said.

"Ok, so why did you leave a note for me to bring this box up?" Odie asked, nudging the old cardboard with his foot.

"Earlier, when we were swimming with Harper, she found a box with all sorts of equipment," Teresa explained. "All these things that had helped them the first time they'd gone after the stones."

"Awesome! Work's halfway done already," Atlanta said happily, jumping down from the desk to join Teresa and Odie on the bed.

"I don't think so," Teresa said slowly. "According to Harper, that Ike kid designed everything to be specifically suited to its owner. And the box Harper found only had a few things that were her's."

Odie nodded slowly, already wanting to get his hands on this new technology. The box sitting a few feet from him had been strangely in his closet back when they'd first moved in. He hadn't gone through the box then, assuming it was just something Athena needed out of the way, and completely forgotten about it. The fact that Teresa had remembered it was even more incredible, but now his curiosity was burning.

"But why hide the wrong pieces together?" Atlanta asked. "That doesn't help anybody."

Teresa didn't answer, she'd ducked behind the main case folder again. Each of the reports had been filled out by the team members. She wasn't sure what she was looking for as her eyes skimmed each of the pages for the fifth time that day, but she knew she'd know when she found it—which she didn't.

Meanwhile, Odie's curiosity got the better of him and he pulled the box tabs open. Both he and Atlanta coughed on the disrupted dust, but leaned forward to look inside. There were all sorts of things inside, specifically power cords and coils of wire along with a wide assortment of tools, but there were also data cds, memory boards, and folded Chinese lanterns and a strip of firecrackers.

"Well, Ike's chart did say 'pyro'," Atlanta said with a shrug when Odie held up the firecrackers with a raised eyebrow. "This must be his stuff."

"The box Harper found was a fancy clay one, though," Teresa said, scooting over to join them at the end of the bed.

Odie shrugged and tried to shift the contents so he could see to the bottom of the box, only to find even more stuff beneath it. "That's impossible," he mumbled. "The box can't be that deep..."

"What are you guys doing?"

All three jumped to see Harper standing in the doorway. The girl looked at them curiously with sleepiness still in her eyes, but Teresa could easily see the sleepy look getting replaced with a mixture of panic and surprise. "What's that doing here?"

The guilty trio looked back at the box.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N:**__ Same drill (about not owning much of anything). I really have no excuse as to why this has taken so long to get up here, since I've had numerous chapters written on dA for the longest time now... Oh well, here's to you!_

Chapter 10

Teresa's mind was racing with excuses they could use, namely because she wasn't sure what was the truth. Especially now that Harper's emotions fought to be seen on her typically composed face. Anger, distrust, horror, and panic were kinda meshed together until it resulted in a devastated scowl.

"We thought another box might be in it," Odie said, coming to the rescue with the most obvious answer.

Harper blinked at him, the building emotions ebbing slightly in her surprise at the suggestion. But the panicked look in her eyes came back as she looked down at the dusty old box.

"If it is, then we're not getting those pieces," she told them, coming far enough into the room to close a flap with her foot. Then she stopped and looked at them, her face faintly pink again. "Why are you trying to find the boxes anyway?"

"Just in case," Atlanta said.

Harper raised an eyebrow at her and stepped carefully around the box to close the other flap. "In case of what?"

"In case there are any other stones out there," Teresa elaborated only to find Harper looking affronted, and quickly added. "You know, ones that Dionysus didn't get rid of."

Again Harper blinked in surprise and a sheepish blush darkened her cheeks. "Oh."

For a moment the four of them were rooted in their spots, three hoping that the newcomer didn't spot the files strewn across the bed as she worked out her thoughts. Then noises of Archie, Herry, and Jay came floating up the stairs, sending Harper into motion.

She quickly picked up the box, holding it carefully and away from herself—reminding Atlanta of her mom when she'd bring home some prize game to be cooked. "Ok. I'll run this down to the basement for you," she said quickly as she turned for the door. "Then we can try to think where Pierce would have hidden things."

Before the others could say anything they already heard her going down the stairs, talking loudly with their other teammates as she went.

Odie, Atlanta, and Teresa exchanged glances.

"That was..."

"Strange," Teresa slowly finished for Odie, nodding in agreement.

"What's so important about a dusty old box?" Atlanta asked. "The way she was holding it, you'd think it was a bomb or something."

The trio exchanged glances again, though now their eyes were wide at the new possibility. Then Teresa forcefully shook her head. "No," she said. "Athena would know if there were something dangerous in the dorm."

"Yeah, but would she tell us about it?" Atlanta pointed out.

Again they exchanged wary glances. What exactly were they getting into?

...

Herry was just passing the stairs, heading for the kitchen, when the familiar purple fabric caught his eye. He stopped, watching as the dorm's newest member carried an old cardboard box down the stairs.

"Hey, Harper!" he greeted her.

The girl jerked slightly, then peeked around the box's side. "Oh, hey, Herry," she answered, flashing a smile. "Have a good afternoon?"

"Yeah, you?" Herry asked, waiting for her on the bottom step.

"Uh-huh," she said, her attention back on trying to watch her footing around the box.

"Do you need any help?"

"Huh? Oh. Uh..." She looked at the box in her hands then at the remaining steps. "I think I've got it."

Herry gave her a look of disbelief, but the girl missed it. She was almost to the bottom when Herry watched her take a wrong step.

"Woah!" he yelped, darting forward. He managed to catch her, but the box went through the air. It landed with an abnormally loud thud, followed by the sound of hundreds of contents falling over. And a screeching roar.

Both Harper and Herry stared at the box as it fell silent again, their eyes wide and mouths agape.

"What was that?" Jay's voice demanded seconds before he appeared from the living room. He looked at the pair whom sat entangled on the stairs, then at the box and back again with confusion clear on his face. "You two ok?"

"Uhhh." Herry glanced at Harper. "I think so?"

Harper blinked again, then her mind seemed to suddenly take hold of the situation and she leapt to her feet. "Umm. Yeah," she agreed. "We're good. Just—uh—slipped carrying that to... Athena's room—her storage room."

"Sounds heavy," Jay commented.

"Heh, yeah, well, it's Athena's stuff," Harper said with a shrug, then she turned and held out a hand to Herry. "Thanks for catching me."

"Oh, uh, yeah," he said, taking her hand. Then to his surprise she managed to help pull him up. "No problem. Want me to carry it the rest of the way?"

The girl hesitated, but smiled. "Sure," she said, her eyes flickering to Jay. "Might as well—I'd probably trip over something."

Herry laughed and quickly passed her to get the box, which he easily hoisted to his hip. She giggled and led the way past the stairs and down the hall.

Jay watched them head off toward Athena's section of the house, then went back to the living room where he'd been working on his pre-calculus homework. On one couch, Archie was glaring at a book of Grecian melodramas that had been assigned for World Literature. On the other, Neil was sprawled out, smirking as he lifted one of his earphones off his ear.

"Looks like someone's got a crush on the new girl," he proclaimed in a sing-songy voice.

Both of his teammates looked at him, one smirking and the other scowling. Neil grinned then caught Archie's expression. "What's the matter Archie?" he asked over dramatically. "You like her too?"

"No!" Archie snapped.

"Well you sure look sour about Herry liking her," Neil pointed out, smirking slyly.

Archie glared at him, but bit back all the comments he wanted to make, betting that his teammates would defend Harper instead of agree. Not that he had valid points to make, it was just his gut saying there was something wrong with being there, but none of his teammates would believe him without proof.

"Ok, guys," Jay said with a tired sigh. "We have three days before Spring Break's over, let's just enjoy it while it lasts."

"Who wasn't enjoying it?" Neil asked innocently, plugging his ears with the headphones again.

Jay rolled his eyes, but Archie eventually nodded. If nothing else, maybe he'd be able to get some proof once school started.


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N:**__ Same drill as always (about not owning much of anything). Hope you're enjoying the insanity!_

Chapter 11

"So... where should we put this?" Herry asked, glancing around the goddess's amazingly cluttered storeroom.

Harper was staring around as well, but she seemed a little lost in thought until she pointed to a shelf that had a few trophies and metals sitting on it. "I guess over there works," she said with a shrug. "I mean, it doesn't really look like there's another space for it—just... be careful putting that down."

"What's in here anyway?" Herry asked as he shoved the trophies aside and gently slid the box into place.

"I have no idea," Harper said, her eyes still large as she regarded the box. "And after hearing that in the hallway—I'd really rather not find out."

"You said it," Herry said, nodding in agreement. As his eyes traveled around the room again, spotting a bear skin draped over a mannequin that was dressed like a wild-man or something, Herry remembered the stuffed bear camped out in his cargo pocket.

"Hey," he said, pulling the plush toy free. "Uhh..."

But Harper had already turned and was just clearing the doorframe. Herry jogged after her, catching up as she reached the kitchen and went a glass of water.

"Went for a hike with Archie and Odie," he announced, joining her at the sink. "We think we found your cabin."

Harper froze. The cup she was holding under the faucet quickly overflowed, spilling over her fingers, but the girl just stared straight ahead with an expression he couldn't read, even if he had noticed it.

"Looks like Cronus got to it," he continued, feeling sorry for her as he remembered the ruins. "The whole place was wrecked."

The girl next to him let out a breath and closed her eyes briefly. "Oh."

"I brought this back for you," Herry said quickly when he noticed the saddened look on her face. "Figured you might want it."

Harper's eyes went wide at the sight of the bear and the cup clattered against the sink as it fell from her hand. The sound brought back her senses, though, and she quickly turned the water off before she reached for the bear with her dry hand.

"It, uh, might be a little dirty," Herry said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he waited for her to fully take the bear.

Harper shook her head with a dry laugh, her gaze low and only showing him the crown of her hair. "Dr. Huxley has had an ongoing friendship with dirt over the years."

"Huh?"

"It's ok, he just needs a quick trip through the washer and dryer," she said, then finally looked up with a wane smile. "Thanks, Herry."

"Welcome," Herry answered, smiling back.

His smile somehow made her's less forced, but she gave him a small nod and she tucked the bear safely in the crook of her arm. Then she quickly moved around the kitchen island and out of the room.

Seconds later Odie appeared, glancing back over his shoulder toward the stairs. "You know," he said, shaking his head. "She's probably the most confusing girl I've ever met."

"No she's not," Herry said instantly.

Odie raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "O...kay."

Herry felt his face go warm and quickly mumbled something about foozeball before he raced into the living room.

The rest of the night went a little awkwardly, to say the least. Everyone, except Neil and Herry, had been trying to get more information out of Harper. Herry would defend her when he could, earning him strange glances and exasperated sighs from his teammates. Not that she needed the help, though. Somehow the girl could maneuver her way around a conversation as easily as Teresa could weave her way through a packed highway.

"Well, this has been fun," Harper said cheerfully as laughter died away from a story Neil had told. "But I think I'm gonna head up to bed."

"I think I'll call it a night too," Herry announced when Harper got to her feet.

All seven of the other teens glanced at him skeptically, but Harper managed to smile and the pair left the room talking about board games.

"Well," Atlanta said slowly as their voices faded away. "That was... informative."

"Yeah," Teresa agreed. "About us."

Somehow they'd talked about everything from Jay's childhood to Atlanta's favorite hunting trips to Odie's earliest computer program to Teresa's first karate classes to Archie's poetry. But the only thing they'd gotten out of Harper, aside from her uncanny ability to redirect questions, was that she'd seen at least half the world before she turned 16 and she was not a fan of spiders (which was only because Herry saved her from one).

Atlanta smirked and turned to Archie. "You really have a Barry Bunny collection?"

His face instantly turned four shades of red. "They're my sister's!"

"But they're in your room," Atlanta pointed out.

Archie let out a growl. She was never going to let him live it down now and it was all because Harper had gotten him to admit his first poetry book was hidden underneath the collection of plush toys.

"Its like she's used to being interrogated," Jay said, his mind ever on topic.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Teresa asked.

"Nothing," Odie announced. Six pairs of eyes fell to where he sat on the floor. He looked up with a serious expression then held up his PMR. "We've got bigger problems. Hermes just finished checking Iris's hideouts."

"And?" Teressa pressed, though she already guessed the answer.

"She's definitely missing."

...

"You really didn't have to walk me all the way upstairs," Harper said when they had passed Teresa and Jay's doors to one of two doors that Herry hadn't noticed before.

Herry shrugged and gave her an embarrassed smile. "I know. Just helping out."

She smirked at him as he held the door open for her and flicked on the light switch. Instantly the inset focus lighting flare to life, illuminating evenly spaced spots along the walls and Herry stared into the strange space. The shelves were cluttered with a wide assortment of different objects. There was a music system in a little cove in the corner, between the window to the fire-escape and mirror with dance bar.

On the other side of the room, the walls were covered with strategical maps and villain profiles. Below all that were her desk and dresser, on which she had a computer and music boxes and photos of numerous different topics.

"Uhh..." Herry said slowly, as his mind made a tally of the room. "Don't you have a bed?"

Harper looked at him for a moment or two, then laughed. "I have a murphy bed."

"Murphy bed?" Herry repeated.

She laughed again and crossed the room to her dance mirror. Between the mirror and her bookshelves was a built-in unit that he'd thought were more dance bars, but she pressed a flower shaped knob on the built-in's side and it made a loud click. Then she pulled on the higher of the bars.

Herry stared as the bed swung down from the wall, perfectly made with a purple comforter.

"I like when things can be put away," she offered as an explanation as she smiled sheepishly at his expression. "Not that I do put things away, but I like knowing that there's a place for everything if I need it."

"That works," Herry said with a shrug, smiling at her.

"Yeah, some of the time anyway," she said, returning the smile feebly. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Oh, right," Herry said, backing out of her doorway. "Well, uhh, don't forget your bear."

Harper blinked at him in surprise and her smile grew strained as she held up the small teddy bear. "Got him."

"Right," he said again, rubbing the back of his head. "Good night, Harper!"

"Night, Herry," she said and closed the door.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N:**__ Same drill (about not owning much of anything), but now the fun begins!_

Chapter 12

The midday light was weird, not full sun, but there was enough light to sail by. Which was obvious, otherwise Jay wouldn't have been out on the water.

He had no idea where the others were, probably enjoying another volleyball game on the beach, but usually at least one would have chosen to come with him.

_Oh well_, he thought, turning his vessel toward the open waters. _Their loss_.

The wind got stronger as he went further out. Looked like a storm was coming in fast.

"Maybe I should turn around," Jay mumbled to himself.

Just as his ship was parallel with the coast, though, a flash of lightning came down, splitting some of the water further out. Jay squinted through the now steadily pouring rain. To his shock he saw a water god get hit repeatedly with the lightning while Cronus laughed from the sidelines.

"NO!" a voice cried out.

Jay jerked awake to find himself in his room again and a quick glance at the clock told him it was only two in the morning, but he could also hear the creak of a hall floorboard outside his door.

Disentangling himself from his sheets, Jay crossed to the door.

"Teresa?" he asked when he looked out to see the long strawberry-blonde hair.

His teammate held a finger to her lips and motioned for him to come with her, normally he'd have made a lame joke and laughed uncomfortably, but Teresa's expression was too serious.

"What?" he asked in a whisper.

"I don't know," Teresa said, stifling a yawn. "I was having a really strange dream... something woke me up."

If anyone else had said that, he would have dismissed it as coincidence, but this was his psychic teammate talking. "Me too."

Teresa's attention snapped to him and she frowned in thought, but before either could do anything they heard Harper shout from her room. Exchanging glances, the two heroes raced to the new girl's door only to find it locked.

"No!" Harper shouted from inside. "No! I won't let you!"

"We have to get in there," Jay said decidedly.

"Yeah," Teresa agreed. "Before she wakes everyone else. But how?"

"Can't you move things with your mind?" Jay asked after a moment's thought.

"Yeah...maybe," Teresa said, understanding what he meant. Soon she closed her eyes to focus and in barely any time at all Jay heard the lock click free.

Jay quickly opened the door to find the room still flooded with moonlight, but no attacker. Harper was alone and still asleep, but judging by how much she was tossing against her sheets, what ever she was dreaming about couldn't have been good.

"No," Harper cried out again, though she was muffled slightly by her pillow as she tossed and turned.

"Harper," Teresa called quietly, going to the girl's bedside. "Harper, wake up."

Jay went to the girl's other side, briefly wondering if she would fight them in her sleep before waking up—a situation Jay had experienced when Teresa had been trapped in a nightmare sent by Cronus. But they'd have to chance it.

"Harper," Jay tried. "It's a nightmare. You have to wake up."

One of Harper's hands came toward him in a fist, which Teresa caught before it could connect with his jawline.

"C'mon, Harper," Jay tried again, shaking her by the shoulders. "Wake up!"

The girl's eyes snapped open and she tore herself free, tucking herself into the wall space her bed had folded out of.

"Harper, it's ok," Teresa assured her as the girl's terrified eyes darted around the room.

"It was a dream," Jay said.

"Or a nightmare," Teresa pointed out.

Harper looked from one of the older teens to the other as she slowly calmed down again, sitting on her pillow as she tucked her knees under her chin.

"Are you ok?" Jay asked.

"I—um—yeah," Harper said, giving them a forced smile. "Yeah, I'm good. What time is it?"

"About ten after two," Teresa answered.

"In the morning?" Harper asked, raising her eyebrows at them. "Why are you awake?"

"You were screaming," Teresa answered.

"Oh... Sorry."

"Anything you want to talk about?" Jay offered.

"Uh. No," Harper said quickly. "Must have just been a scary dream. Thanks, though."

"You're sure you're ok?" Teresa asked, looking more than ready to go back to bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harper assured them, smiling more easily. "I'm sorry I woke you guys, it probably won't come back."

Jay nodded, understanding the obvious dismissal, but he didn't move until Teresa gave his shoulder a tug.

"G'night again, Harper," Teresa said with a yawn.

"Night," she returned, bundling herself back into her sheets.

"Yeah, night," Jay said as he followed Teresa to the door. He glanced back with his hand on the knob to see Harper curled up and gently breathing. Deciding against saying anything else, he closed the door behind him.

...

Harper waited until she heard their doors close before she moved at all, then she scrambled off the bed and hunted down her shoes. She wasn't sure what dream Jay and Teresa'd had, but the one she'd had terrified her more than any monster she'd ever faced—including the massive spiders that appeared because of an over-concentrated stone.

Finding her shoes over by her drafting table, Harper stuffed her feet inside and grabbed a sweatshirt before poking her head out the door. The hallway was quiet, almost as though she hadn't disturbed the night with screams due to nightmares, but there was no sound coming from Jay's room across the landing.

Even though she'd only spent one night here, she knew that the boy could snore with the best of them when he was out cold. And Teresa tended to hum in her sleep.

Harper closed the door again. Clearly she wasn't going out that way, but that wasn't a big problem. She'd gotten away from more attentive dormmates before. If anyone here could top Phoebe, they deserved a metal and job with the government.

She had to admit, though, as she turned on her stereo to some soft piano music, she did miss this. Having to think in order to get around someone. But it was bittersweet.

Once she was sure that no one was going to check on her again, she slid the window to the fire escape open and hopped out onto the rickety metalwork. It had gained a little more rust since the last time she'd worked her way down it, but no one seemed to hear her creaking down to the alley below.

The landing was a little hard, swinging from the last rung of the latter until she could flip and land on the pavement safely, which jarred her knee a little. But she was still able to walk and with a grim frown she headed towards the harbor.


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N:**__ Same drill (about not owning much of anything), and I smirk at the ironic numbering! ^_^_

Chapter 13

Jay stared at the ceiling. It was three in the morning, and he'd been wide awake for an hour. For some reason, having to drag Harper out of her nightmares—as well as having his own—made his mind race to life. It wasn't as thought anything important was going on in his head, but he just couldn't go back to sleep because of it.

The scene of the younger girl thrashing against her sheets was replaying behind his eyes. It was strange. He'd have been the first to think that Harper had next to no fears, yet there she'd been screaming in her bed.

As the clock changed to a quarter after, he rolled onto his stomach and crumpled the pillow as a prop beneath his chin, staring at his headboard.

Something was clearly wrong here. But why wouldn't Harper let them help?

He glanced at the clock again. 3:22.

With a groan he pressed his face into the pillow. This was getting him nowhere. And with Hera wanting to see him in the morning, he couldn't afford to be tired. But there was only one way he knew of to settle his mind, and it involved talking to Harper. And that would definitely not get him back to sleep.

"Oh well," he sighed and swung himself out of bed. He tiptoed into the hall and over to Harper's door, glancing briefly back towards Teresa's room.

Then he knocked quietly. "Harper?"

No answer, but he could hear music when he pressed his ear against the door. Not that it wasn't surprising, there was barely any light in the sky yet and any sane person would be sleeping. Even if the sleeping person was the reason he was awake.

Or what if she was awake? And just hadn't heard him knock?

He tried the door knob only to find it locked again. He stared at the knob for a moment or two, then decided against his better judgement and leaned towards the keyhole.

"Jay!"

A small yelp of pain escaped him as his head collided with the doorknob and he pushed himself away from the door to find Teresa giving him reprimanding frown, her arms folded across the front of her pink nightgown.

"What are you doing?" she demanded in a whisper, though she helped him back to his feet.

"I was just–just checking if she was awake," he stammered, feeling his whole head burn with embarrassment.

Teresa raised an eyebrow at him. "By peeking through her lock?" she asked. "What is it with you guys? You and Archie are so entirely unglued—and Herry's completely ga-ga over her."

"She's trying to hide something," Jay said.

"Not again," Teresa groaned and plodded back to her room.

Jay quickly followed. "Doesn't it make you at least a little curious?"

"Yes. Enough to spy through key holes? No," Teresa said, dropping back onto her bed. "Hasn't your mother ever told you that curiosity kills the cat?"

"I know," he said, sitting on the end of her bed as she curled up inside her blankets again. He glanced at her bedside clock. 3:45. "But she might need help-and who better to help her than a group of heroes?"

Teresa rolled her eyes and tried to hold in a yawn. "She's one too, you know."

Jay nodded as a yawn of his own cut him off. "I know..."

"Go to sleep, Jay," Teresa said from her pillow where her eyes were already closed. "Deal with it in the morning."

And just like that, he felt like a sack of dream sand had been dumped over his head. He nodded again, but he could barely keep his eyes open. There was no way he was going to get to his feet again.

But then... he was pretty comfortable right here...

...

For being one of the most wanted mythological beings of all time, Cronus really wasn't that hard to locate. All anyone had to do was look for the ritziest yachts in New Olympia's harbor, then follow the smell. But then, most people couldn't pick out the smell of ogre unless they'd been tightly squeezed by one for an hour's travel.

Luckily or not, Harper had been. And now she found her self staring at the second largest yacht, trying not to gag. It was an easy set up. One of his minions was at the top of the ramp to the boat, another at the bottom. There could have been another one somewhere, but there was really no threat.

In all honesty she could have gotten onboard unnoticed. But she was really looking for something to pummel.

By the time the titan god of time finally showed himself, Harper had already knocked his two ogres into the bay.

"You've regained some of your skills, I see," Cronus chided.

Harper glared at him, flipping her braid over her shoulder as she walked up the gang plank. "Your defenses are low enough for a twelve year old to get past," she shot back at him. "Never mind a sixteen year old in pajamas."

"I see that," Cronus mumbled to himself.

"What are your terms?" Harper demanded and the god looked up to find the girl waiting for him with folded arms.

"Straight to business?" Cronus asked, a mocking glint to his eye as he strode around her to a plush bench that lined the yacht's deck.

"I don't have time for this," Harper snapped. "Well me what I need to do, or I'll tell Jay exactly how to find you."

His reaction, a flicker of fear followed by controlled hatred, renewed her confidence and made her smirk. This god was the greatest threat and he was scared of a couple teens? Right. She was sure she'd be trembling in her slippers... if she were five years old.

"I want the blue chalcedony," Cronus announced, staring out at the water.

For a split second she stared at him in surprise, but scowled as he turned to face her again. "As if," she said. "Hera's got that thing under lock and key in her storage shelves. There's no way I can get it unless she entrusts it to a mortal."

"Exactly."

Harper blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm sure you've heard by now, about a certain deity going missing," Cronus said airily, examining his nails in a way that almost looked like an evil version of Neil. Harper probably would have laughed at the connection if certain variables couldn't be called into play.

"You kidnaped Iris," Harper acknowledged.

Cronus gave her a sly grin, but the girl was already deep in thought as she leaned against the boat's rail. He was right. If Hera was worried about the stone, she'd definitely move it—even though Harper really couldn't think of a safer place than Hera's room. And if Iris stays missing, the only ones who the chief goddess would trust enough to take care of it would probably be the new heroes.

Putting the stone practically into Harper's hands.

"I'll do it."

"Really?" He eyed her suspiciously.

Harper shrugged. "Your offer's very appealing. I'll let you know my plans once I've thought everything through."

"What?" Cronus asked, sounding a little disappointed. "No questions? No asking where I've hidden Iris? or how to find me after? or what I plan on using the stone for?"

"Nope," Harper said, turning on heel and heading back to the ramp.

"Really? And how's your grandfather?" Cronus asked.

Harper hesitated for a split second, before meeting his purely evil grin with her own temper ablaze in her eyes. Then she squared her shoulders and started walking again with her head held high and her mind racing.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

It might have only been the second night that Harper had spent in the dorm, but Archie couldn't help feeling surprised that he didn't find her in the training room the next morning. Or in the pool. Or the library. Or anywhere within the Gods' area of the school. And, after a stormy run-in with Persephone, he returned to the dorm where his teammates were still sleeping—only to find she wasn't there either.

Or at least, so far as he could tell she wasn't there. She might have been sleeping, but the door was locked and the keyhole barely showed the foot of her bed.

Which was irritating.

Eventually he ended up camping out in the living room, on the couch with a clear view of the stairs. By ten, though, everyone seemed to be running out for their activity of the day. Jay practically sprinted out the dorm, shouting something about Hera before the door flew shut behind him. Herry and Odie were going out to see if a new video game had come out yet. Neil was off to the spa for a relaxation treatment (what he needed one for, Archie couldn't imagine). Not long after him, Teresa and Atlanta came down the stairs in deep conversation about clothes.

Atlanta stopped in the doorway and gave a snort of disbelief. "You're really just gonna sit there all day?"

"No," Archie said defensively. "I was just waiting to see what everyone else was doing."

"We'll we're the last ones," Teresa informed him. "Though I don't think you want to join us in prom dress shopping."

"Uh. No," Archie agreed, making a face. "What about Harper—I haven't seen her come down yet."

The girls raised an eyebrow each at him. "She left over an hour ago," Teresa said. "She joined me for a sun-salutation and then left for an aerobics class at SunCrest gym."

"Oh," Archie said. It took him a minute, but he slowly remembered where SunCrest was—pretty much dead center of New Olympia. Maybe about two blocks from the mall. "You guys mind if I catch a ride? I wanted to look for a new book."

Atlanta looked to Teresa, who shrugged. "Sure. What book?"

"Uhh..."

"You don't know?" Atlanta asked with a teasing laugh to her voice.

Archie smirked as he followed them. "I'll know it when I see it."

...

Not long after they entered the mall, Archie managed to lose the girls in the crowd and headed off towards the center of town. It was a longshot that his idea would work, but he preferred trying anyway.

There was no sign of her, that he could see, at SunCrest Gym, but there was another gymnasium a few blocks down and he headed off that way. He'd barely gotten three streets over when it felt like Neil's luck had rubbed off on him.

"Hey Harper!" someone shouted ahead of him

Archie looked up to see the door of the corner stoop up ahead had opened and dozens of athletic looking people were pouring out, one of which was wearing a fuchsia tunic and had a long golden braid hanging over her shoulder. He quickly ducked into another doorway as Harper looked back towards the remaining three girls standing in front of what must have been a dance studio.

"You back for good this time?" said a brunette with slanted bangs.

Harper shrugged. "Anything's possible."

"Yeah, but is it likely?" asked a girl with the palest blond hair Archie had ever seen, in fact it was hard not to stare at her in general. Something about the girl's sharp features and strange beauty just screamed for attention.

Again Harper shrugged and Archie heard a little chuckle. "I don't know yet," she said. "But I promise I'll let you know."

"Or at least don't disappear without a word again," the third girl said, flipping her dark braids over her shoulder.

"I'll try not to," Harper promised, then turned to start down the block.

"Wait, Harper!" The platinum blonde called after her.

She turned to her friends again, though she continued to walk slowly.

"Are you gonna make it to Chase's party later?"

Harper hesitated.

"Oh come on!" the brunette whined. "None of us have seen you in three years! You have to come!"

"I'll see what I can do," Harper said with a laugh. "Where is it?"

"Bourbon street—at Jean-Luc's," the blonde responded.

"There's gonna be dancin," the third girl said, practically singing the last word.

The brunette muttered something in Spanish. "Of course there'll be dancing! What else happens when you put dancers together?"

All four girls laughed and Harper shook her head. "Alright, alright," she said. "I promise to be there."

Her three friends let out cheers and called out promises of events that would happen later that night as Harper turned back down the street with a smile. Archie waited a few moments after she'd passed him before he followed. If nothing else, maybe he'd learn more about her by doing this.

Archie soon found out that Harper's typical day was insane to follow. It was like she knew every dance studio and public gymnasium in the city—and she visited each of them. Spending anywhere from half an hour to two hours at each before bounding off to another one. The only brake she took was after Madam Petrova's Ballet Academy, where she stopped by a panini vendor before crossing the street into the park around 1:15.

Archie opted for a hotdog stand nearby as his stomach growled in its envy of her lunch. Then he slunk forward, peeking around the large stone columns that marked the entry tot he park, but he didn't see her on the path ahead.

Frowning, he stepped into the archway and scanned the area only to react too late as a foot connected with his middle. The force sent him doubling over onto the grass, his hotdog flying from his hand.

"Hey!" her growled, trying to kick his assailant's legs out from beneath them, but they easily dodged him. Then he stopped to stare sheepishly.

Staring right back down at him, clearly suspicious, was Harper who now held a panini in one hand and a hotdog in the other. Her eyes flickered with a few different emotions before she finally held his lunch out to him.

"You're clogging arteries with this," she said.

Archie shot her a dirty look, but took the hotdog. "I like hotdogs," he defended, ignoring how she offered to help him up. "And there's nothing wrong with my arteries."

"Just your spying skills," Harper commented cooly, then turned away.

"Spying skills?" Archie repeated, following her to a park bench where she dropped her duffle and tucked her legs beneath her before settling into her lunch. "I wasn't spying."

"No?" she asked, swallowing a bite. "So you just skulk around the city aimlessly everyday? Or do you try dancing too?"

Archie gave her another dirty look, but Harper kept her attention on the sandwich in front of her which only made him more frustrated with her. Almost like she was bating him by acting above him.

"You can sit down, you know," Harper pointed out, gesturing towards the rest of the bench.

"Well maybe I don't want to," Archie said and took a bite of his hotdog.

"Then don't," Harper said with a noncommittal shrug, but she frowned at him. "I don't care either way."

"And I don't care if you care or not," Archie responded, knowing how immature he was starting to sound but not able to stop himself.

Harper raised an eyebrow at him, then rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said and turned her attention to some kids by the pond.

Archie narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously as he finished his hotdog. He thought about leaving, but that would defeat the whole point of following her this morning. So he begrudgingly took a seat, deciding to study her up close—since she already knew he was following her anyway.

She barely glanced at him, the only real acknowledgment she gave to him joining her on the bench was an ever so slight victorious smirk. He pretended he was watching the people playing frisbee nearby, but he cautiously watched her out of the corner of his eye.

After about five minutes, it became clear that she wasn't going to speed up eating that sandwich, so Archie settled for conversation. Maybe one-on-one would get more information than her playing the questions off on someone else.

"So," he said, wondering if he sounded as awkward as he felt. "Where are you from?"

Harper raised an eyebrow at him and looked at him suspiciously before facing away from him again, her eyes wandering around the park. "Here," she said after a moment or two. "Or more so, five blocks that way and seven blocks over, but I was here most of the time anyway."

"You grew up in New Olympia?"

She nodded, giving him a bemused smirk. "People do actually live here, ya know," she chided. "We're not all bussed in by gryphon. Doesn't Herry's granny live just outside of town?"

Archie shot her a glare. "So what's with all the different dance studios?"

Harper broke into a victorious smirk before she answered. "I don't have the focus to be on a dance troop. So I kinda just float," she said, then smiled in a weird far-off kind of way. "There's this prestigious academy on East Elm that probably would have been cool, but that takes alot more money that I have to get into. A friend of mine goes there and claims it's brutal, but that's dance for ya."

She seemed to snap back to the present after that. She looked at Archie and quickly turned back to her sandwich, which she ate faster than the first half. Then she got up and stretched out her legs as she dropped the wrapper into the nearest trash bin.

"I'm heading to Guido's for salsa and tango," she said, picking up her dufflebag again. "Then Dilligan's for step and Carnival del Barrio for zumba at four. Just—ya know—in case you want to follow me some more."

The last sentence had brought back that teasing smirk, the one that made it seem as though she'd won something over him, and made Archie glare at her as he got to his feet too.

"No thanks," he said. "I have other places to be."

"Well that's reassuring," Harper said and turned back toward the nearest park exit, lazily waving a hand over her shoulder at him.

Archie frowned after her for a moment or two more, then turned in the exact opposite direction—the direction they'd been facing. She'd said that she used to live over there. What better place to find out a little more than her old home?

_**A/N:**__ I really do wish I had more time to work on this! *sigh* Not much is mine, but it's fun anyway. More to come soon! I'm glad you're all enjoying it! ^_^_


	15. Chapter 15

Chatper 15

"What do you think?" Teresa asked, spinning in the coral colored gown. It had a vintage look to it, capped sleeves and form-fitting, but somehow she loved it. Especially the rhinestones that glittered down the front.

Atlanta was sitting on the cushioned waiting bench that spanned the center of the dressing room lobby. Her own prom attire, an actual vintage teal dress, was already purchased from three stores ago and in the bag on her arm. She titled her head to the side as she regarded the dress then smirked. "Very nice," she said. "I think Jay's face'll match the color very well."

Teresa felt her own face heat up. "Atlanta!"

Her closest teammate just laughed and shook her head. "Sorry, you set yourself up for that one," she said. "But, really, it's very nice."

"You think so?" Teresa asked, turning this way and that to see every angle she could manage in the mirror.

"It's better than the last four you tried on," Atlanta said, rolling her eyes.

Teresa made a face at her. "Alright," she said, quickly disappearing back into the dressing stall. "One more, then we can go for accessories."

Atlanta flopped backward, sprawling across the bench and hanging her head over the other side. "Yay," she said blandly. "I'm jumping for joy."

"Oh, c'mon, Atlanta," Teresa's voice groaned. "How can you not be excited?"

"How can you be? Seriously, what's the big deal?" Atlanta countered. "It's just a dance."

"Just a dance?" Teresa yelped, sticking her head back through the curtain to make sure her friend hadn't grown an extra head. "It's not just a dance-it's the dance! Something that everyone will always remember."

"Right. Which is why I still think it'd be funny to show up in my field hockey uniform," Atlanta jeered as Teresa disappeared again. "At least I know no one else would be wearing it."

Teresa let out an irritated groan of defeat, at this point giving up was probably worth it. So she focused on zipping herself into the last of the gowns she'd picked out then rejoined Atlanta, going to the triple mirror at the end of the room.

"Well?" she asked.

Atlanta lifted her head to glance down the bench and raised an eyebrow. "You look like a gothic Ballerina," she said, letting her view of the world return to upside-down.

Teresa stared at her own reflection for a second as she considered Atlanta's comment, then burst out laughing. Atlanta grinned at her, looking incredibly peculiar in the reflection, and Teresa shook her head.

"Alright," she said, turning back toward the stall. "I think the Mode one wins."

"The what?" Atlanta asked, forcing herself to sit up again.

"The coral one," Teresa said, pulling the hanger from the wall hook to dangle the gown out the curtained door.

"Ooh," Atlanta said, taking the cue to hold the dress for her.

Soon Teresa appeared again, with the other gowns and her shopping bags in hand. Then she led the way out, stopping to deposit the losing gowns onto the return rack before taking the coral gown from Atlanta and going to the register.

"Glad that's over," Atlanta commented, leaning against the check-out counter.

"You can gripe and groan all you want," Teresa informed her, "but you'll thank me once prom gets here."

Atlanta gave her a smirk, then turned thoughtful. "Its only in three weeks, right?"

"Three and a half," Teresa corrected, giving the sales girl a smile of thanks as she took the gown bag. "But yeah, why?"

"Do you think Harper'll still be here?" Atlanta asked as she followed her out into the mall, which nearly made her collide with the taller girl as she stopped short.

Teresa turned to her with an expression Atlanta had seen before—yesterday when she'd been what she now considered stupid enough to mention the words "prom gowns" and "shopping" in front of her teammate. Somehow, this didn't bode well.

"What?" Atlanta asked warily.

"Nothing," Teresa said innocently.

"Yeah, right," Atlanta said, rolling her eyes. "I know that look. What are you planning?"

"Just that maybe we should go shopping again tomorrow," Teresa said, adjusting her bags.

"Really," Atlanta said, eyeing her suspiciously.

"It'd be a great way for us girls to bond," Teresa continued. "Plus, like you said, if she does stay—she'll need a prom dress."

"'s not exactly what I said," Atlanta pointed out, but she couldn't help smiling, ignoring the fact that a tall guy in shades was walking straight for them. "Well, it sounds like a good plan of attack. Maybe she'll actually talk to us about what to do with the stones—Oof! Hey!"

The force of the guy crashing into her shoulder knocked the bag holding her prom dress to the ground, but he was quick to dive after it. "Whoops," he said, gathering the handles and holding it out to her. "Sorry about that. Nothing breakable right?"

"Uh, nope, just a dress," Atlanta said, blushing as she looked up. Teresa was all but staring.

He must have been a model or an actor or something, because he knew just how to smile at their reddening faces from behind his dark razor shades. He was tall, but even with that green and black jacket on they could tell he probably had perfectly toned muscles under the slate grey shirt. Even his hair seemed perfect—a reddish-brown that had enough of a wave to carry some of it over his right eyebrow and still look cool.

Atlanta blinked as he said something. "Huh?"

"Prom stuff, right?" he asked, smirking. "My girlfriend's been plotting it out for years."

Figures, Atlanta thought, then looked him over again. "Wait. You go to our school?"

His smirk broadened teasingly. "There are four private academies, six trade, four prep, and two public high schools in this city," he said with a slight shrug. "But, yes, I go to your school."

Teresa and Atlanta blinked at him, then exchanged glances. "How did—?"

In the seconds it had taken them to look back, the guy was gone. They glanced at each other again before looking up and down the busy mall walkways.

"Hey!" Atlanta shouted, spotting a green and black jacket easily vanishing into a throng of shoppers.

Teresa grabbed her shoulder before the girl could bolt after him. "There's no way we'll be able to catch him," she said, looking disappointedly towards the crowd. "We'll just have to hunt him down at school."

"Right, with no name, age, or even knowing what he looks like without sunglasses," Atlanta said, narrowing her eyes as she gave the crowd one last searching sweep before falling instep with Teresa. "Yeah, that'll be easy."

"So we'll bring Neil," Teresa said with a shrug and a smile. If nothing else, at least the kid was a lucky charm of sorts.

Atlanta snorted a laugh and shook her head.

"You know, he kinda looked familiar, though," Teresa said slowly as they entered an accessory store. She glanced back for one more attempt at seeing the stranger, but her attention was quickly diverted by Atlanta happily modeling a large feathery hat, causing both girls to burst out laughing.

...

"Oh, Herry, dear! Would you come here for a moment?"

"Huh?" He'd just been leaving a session with Hercules when the slightly shrill voice cut into his thoughts of what to have for lunch. Looking up he found himself the focus of not one, but two goddesses' attention. Athena and Aphrodite, polar opposite in nearly everything, were both smiling at him from the door way to Aphrodite's salon. Though Athena didn't look as patient as her sister.

The love goddess motioned towards the interior of her salon. "Would you mind trying our lemonade for me?" she asked sweetly. "I think it needs more sugar, Athena thinks its too sweet—we could really use another opinion!"

Herry gave them a strange look. Since when did a god take a mortal's opinion. But, hey, it was free lemonade! He shrugged. "Sure, why not."

Both smiles brightened and he was quickly ushered inside the overly frilly room. Like every other time he'd been in here, Herry found the feeling the room gave off a mixture of dizzying, nauseating, and unnerving euphoria. It kinda just resulted in him feeling like he either should go visit the boys' room or take a nap on the over stuffed futon to shake it off.

The lemonade in question was set up on the low round table in the middle of the floor, a large glass pitcher full of the neon yellow liquid surrounded by a set of six spotlessly clean glass cups.

Aphrodite motioned cheerfully for him to sit down as he dropped his duffel bag, at which point Herry was pretty sure her pillows had come alive and swallowed him for a moment until he fought his way back to the edge of the futon. The two goddesses sat across from him, Athena watching as her sister poured him a glassful of the summertime drink.

"Here you go," she said, her voice sounding like honey as she plopped the cup in front of him.

Herry glanced between the two goddesses again with a suspicious gaze as something nagged at the back of his brain. Something wasn't right. Since when did the goddess of love and the goddess of warcraft drink lemonade together? The phrase "all's fair in love and war" came to mind as he raised the glass to his lips, though he couldn't place why.

It was after the first gulp that he noticed what was wrong. The pitcher had been full of lemonade—not even a inch down from the lip of the pitcher—and all of the glasses had been clean. What were they playing at?

All questions evaporated within seconds of the sweet and sour drink coated his tastebuds and moments later he'd drained the cup.

The goddesses watched him closely, their inquisitive gaze probably could have bored holes into his head if they tried a little harder.

"Well?" Athena asked finally. "What do you say?"

"Huh?" Herry blinked at them, then down at the glass. "Oh, uh... I dunno."

"Oh, here, then," Aphrodite said quickly, snatching the glass from his hand and refilling it. "Have another glass before you decide."

"Mmkay." The idea sounded great to him, though he hadn't thought of asking for more. The yellow had darkened a little, so it looked more like it had some orange to it too. It kinda reminded him of Harper's hair, actually.

That glass was gone just as quickly, with the thought that maybe he should have saved some to compare to Harper's hair later. His glass was refilled again and the goddess sisters stared at him with wide eyes, occasionally glancing at each other to share their shock.

"Hmmm." Herry looked closely at the liquid of his fifth round. "Was this pink before?"

"Uh, Herry, honey," Aphrodite said, moving his hand and the glass away from his face so she could look at him. "What do you think?"

"I think it's pink," he answered.

Athena groaned into her hand as she rubbed her eyes then pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Not the color, sweetie," Aphrodite said, casting a withering look at her sister.

"Oh right, the sugar," he said, remembering why he'd been lured in here. He scrunched his lips to one side as he thought, staring down at the strangely dark pink liquid. If it got a little darker it would look like Harper's favorite color. "Um... I think it's good," he said finally. "Not very sugary, but if you add any you might ruin the flavor."

The goddesses were staring at him like he'd grown an extra head, but Herry barely noticed. He was too busy smiling at the glass of lemonade, which was heading closer and closer to that strange shade of purple that Harper liked to wear.

"Are we gonna have this tonight with dinner?" Herry asked, looking up at Athena.

She blinked at him, her sharp cheekbones gaining a faint pinkish color. "Uh, no, probably not."

"Oh." Herry looked down at the glass again. "Can I bring this glass with me, then?"

"Uh, sure thing, sweetie," Aphrodite said, trying to cover her confusion. "But, uh, why?"

"I want to show Harper," Herry said, grinning as he took the glass and shouldered his duffel. "I bet she'll love how it changes color."

Then he happily went out the door, gazing at the glass all the while.

As the door swung closed again behind him, the two goddesses looked at each other.

"That's not going to harm him, right?" Athena asked. "Not make him do something stupid? I mean, he did drink alot of it."

"Of course not!" Aphrodite assured her in a pitch far to high for normal voices as she picked up the nearly empty pitcher. "Though, I have to admit, I've never seen anyone drink so much elixir before!"

"I hope this works," Athena said, looking back at the door.

"You're the goddess of war making a strategical play—of course it'll work!" Aphrodite said, bottling the remaining lemonade and locking it away in her boudoir. "Its just a question of how strongly..."

_**A/N:**__ Mwahahahaha! They do say all is fair in Love and War... :D_


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Thank you for agreeing to this, Jay," Hera said.

Across from her, the brown-haired boy nodded in his usual serious nature as he eyed what could have been a blue baseball. "It's not radioactive or anything, right?" he asked, looking up at the goddess. "I won't accidentally mutate and get laser eyes or anything right?"

Hera gave him a bemused smile and shook her head. "The stone is sealed," she said, gesturing to the blue chalcedony. "And it would take a great deal more than just touch to tap into its properties now."

_Well, that's a relief anyway_, Jay thought.

"I must warn you, Jay," Hera said as he tucked the stone into his pocket. "Don't try to use the stone—not even in the most dire of circumstances. As much good as it could do, it can do far worse. There have been casualties of using such power."

"_Casualties_?" Jay echoed, staring at the goddess in alarm. He glanced down at his pocket. How could a rock cause casualties? Outside of lobbing it at someone's head. She was joking, right?

But Hera nodded gravely. "There is more than one reason the team from Harper's time... disbanded," she said, a flicker of remorse on her face before she smiled at her favorite pupil again. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Now go—and remember, be careful who you trust."

Jay nodded slowly, frowning in thought as he crossed the room. When he got to the door, he glanced back. Hera had already turned away from him, her attention focused on her plants and birds. So he quietly slipped out, his mind going a mile a minute about what his first plan of action should be.

...

Having a stone that could potentially destroy all chances they had of beating Cronus just sitting in his pocket was unnerving, to say the least. Jay had never exactly been one to let his nerves get to him, but keeping calm this time felt harder to do. Especially since Hera had warned him against telling anyone. Which ended up meaning his team and other gods—after all, who else would he tell? It wasn't as though he strutted around school announcing that he talked to the Greek Gods on a regular basis.

So now he found himself walking from the school with the strange weight of the stone pulling at his thoughts. He understood that the stone was dangerous, but was it really dangerous enough that he couldn't tell the people he trusted most.

"Oof! Hey!"

"Sorry," Jay said quickly, reaching out to steady the person he'd walked headlong into only to find himself staring into a set of ocean colored eyes. "Harper!"

The blonde raised a bemused eyebrow at him and adjusted the strap of her dufflebag. "This is—what?—the fourth time in two days we've met like this?"

"Sorry," he said again, rubbing the back of his head as though someone had hit him.

"No big, there are worse habits," she said with a shrug. "So where are you off to, in such deep thought?"

Jay shrugged. "The dorm, I guess," he said and glanced around.

Harper tried to cover her laughter. "Um. I think you've over shot it by about three blocks," she said. "I'd walk back with you, but I'm off to the newsstand."

She motioned further down the block and Jay looked back at her curiously. "You need the Oracle?"

"And the new edition of a magazine," she said quickly.

"I'll join you," he said, still eyeing her quizzically, but he also couldn't help realizing that the Oracle was probably the best person to go see.

"You _really_ don't have to," she said, a slight blush coming to her cheeks. "I have a tail anyway."

The comment shook Jay back out of his thoughts to frown at her. "What?"

She looked back over her shoulder and Jay followed her gaze to see a very familiar blue sweatshirt about half a block away, its wearer looking very interested in a newspaper dispenser. Jay frowned and held in his groan, apparently Archie was still suspicious.

"He's been with me most of the day," she said with a smirk. "Broke off for an hour or two after lunch, but he was there when I got out of tango."

Jay huffed a laugh, then kept pace with her as she tried to go around him. "Then I guess we're both joining you," he said. "I wouldn't mind seeing the Oracle myself."

Now it was Harper's turn to give a curious look, but she kept quiet and simply shrugged as they quickly closed the distance between them and the newsstand. A little, bald old man was sitting on a tall stool while he sipped a cup of coffee. He had darkened round glasses on, but that was probably a good thing. Jay had seen those glasses come off and he wasn't exactly looking forward to ever seeing the white orbs _ever_ again.

But some things had to be done.

"Ah," the man said before they'd even reached the end of his magazine stall. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show."

"Yeah, right," Harper said with a smile.

The man smirked back at her. "Sounds like you three have problems."

Jay and Harper exchanged glances before looking back at Archie, who was doing a very bad job of blending into the sports magazines. He sheepishly tried to act light he was surprised to see them, but after a second or two of their knowing looks (both resembling scowls) he joined them.

"All of them are linked, of course," the oracle informed them.

"They are?" Archie asked, earning him an impatient glance from Harper.

"Of course they are," Harper said, not that she knew what the problems were, but Archie was beginning to irritate her. "When has something _not_ effected six other things?"

"Ok, good point," Archie mumbled.

"Can you tell us anything that might help each problem?" Jay asked, ignoring the war of glares going on around him.

The Oracle hummed noncommittally. "But not enough to reveal the entire problem to those present, I take it?"

Each of the teens glanced at each other and shrugged, even though each wanted to agree. The Oracle smirked again, then pointed at Harper and Archie.

"_You_ two," he said. "Have a right to be worried, though once you learn to trust each other, those worries can lessen."

"Huh?" Archie looked from the Oracle to Harper, but the girl was just as confused and the Oracle was already turning to Jay.

"You, Jay," the Oracle said. "You have to be incredibly careful. Power is a very strong temptation and one of them will betray you."

Now both Harper and Archie were staring at Jay, whom was currently wishing Cronus would show up just as a distraction. But the titan god had never exactly had the best timing anyway.

"If you want more, I suggest you stop coming together," the Oracle said quietly, then added louder as a customer came to browse. "The new Jazz magazine? Three-fifty-two."

The boys stared at him in confusion, but Harper smiled. She quickly handed over a few bills and coins, plucking the music magazine from its shelf. The Oracle smiled at them and the teens said a quick "goodbye" before heading back down the block.

_**A/N:**__ *shrugs* I'm in a toybox (though if you're this far in and still think that this isn't entirely fandom, you might wanna go back and restart). More to come as soon as I can ^_^_


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

When Jay, Archie, and Harper got back to the dorm, the three teens split and went in their separate directions. Harper went up to her room to relax with some yoga, which Teresa and Atlanta, who'd just gotten back from shopping, quickly volunteered to join. Archie disappeared into his room, muttering about working on something. Jay stood in the hallway until he heard each door snap shut, then meandered into the livingroom, where he promptly dropped onto the couch across from the TV.

He didn't turn the tv on, instead he kinda just stared into space as he processed his thoughts. The entire walk home, Harper and Archie had been overly conscious of him. Or at least it felt that way. They'd argued about the magazine that Harper had gotten, about Archie's authenticity as a poet, about who won the race they'd taken yesterday morning—but it still felt like they were fighting for his benefit. He'd listened, or tried to, for the first few minutes, but the oracle's words were weighing on his mind.

Someone was going to betray him. But who? And why?

It wasn't until he'd felt Harper's gentle tug on his sleeve that he even realized they'd made it back to the dorm, and he had nearly walked right past it for the second time that day.

Now the doubting questions came back into his mind, slowly but surely making him lose his appetite even though he'd forgotten to eat lunch.

"Hey! Earth to Jay! Come in, Jay?"

"Huh? What?" Jay blinked at the fingers snapping in front of his nose for a second before swatting the hand away and finding Odie smirking at him.

"Well that took long enough," the shorter boy said with a laugh, then dropped into the arm chair. "What's up?"

"Uh... Nothing," Jay said.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're a terrible liar?" Odie asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. Then he frowned and turned serious. "I know how to make the tools work."

"What?" Jay asked, thoroughly confused.

"The tools Harper found," Odie said in a whisper. "I know how her teammate made them-or well, some of them. I'm almost there."

"Some of them?"

Odie leaned back with a shrug as he laced his fingers behind his head. "Each design was created just differently enough that the counterparts of a different set won't cooperate with the calibration units of a different design by simply swapping out a piece of the machine. You see, the-"

"Uh, Odie?" Jay said quickly before this became a lesson in physics.

"Right, sorry," Odie said, sounding a little disappointed, but he smiled again and motioned for Jay to follow as he got to his feet. "C'mon, I'll show you."

Jay hesitated for a second, then shrugged and got up, joining him at the doorframe. "Sure, we have an hour til dinner right?"

"Yeah," Odie said with a laugh. "Though, last I saw Athena, she was as distracted as you are and running out to see Aphrodite.."

Before Jay could question Odie's observation, the front door swung open and Herry came quickly striding into the dorm with a glass of something that could have been a melted blue-raspberry slurpy.

"Hey, Herry," Jay said as their teammate went for the stairs.

"What's in the cup?" Odie asked.

"Oh, hey guys," Herry said, blinking at them as though he hadn't noticed them there. "Have you seen Harper?"

"She's upstairs doing yoga," Jay said. "Why?"

"Isn't she great?" Herry gushed and started up the stairs two at a time. "I can't wait to show her this lemonade!"

"Uhh..." Jay and Odie watched him go with slacked jaws, then exchanged glances.

"Oookay then," Odie said finally with a shrug of confusion, then led the way to the downward stairs. "That was new."

"Yeah," Jay agreed. "And weird."

"Guess it could be worse," Odie said with a laugh, shoving open the door to his high-tech room.

Jay was always impressed when he walked into his teammate's room. It looked like Odie had just bought out a software store or raided a crime lab-or both. It was definitely a tech-minded person's dream, and Odie was perfectly at home in it as he went gliding across the floor in his desk chair.

"Ok," Odie said, keying a few commands to unlock the system. "Like I was saying before, we know that the pieces in the box don't work together, right?"

"Yeah," Jay said, sitting on Odie's bed (the only part of the room that didn't look like it was from the future). "At least, that's what Harper told us."

"She's right," Odie said, not even looking away from his large screens. "I tested them-no dice. So I used an engineering program I created for shop class to render everything into data files."

"Ok," Jay said slowly, watching as the images appeared. "How does that help us?"

Before he answered, the images on the computer rearranged themselves to show a 3D replica that floated from the screen as a projection in the center of the room. With the exception of it glowing and floating in the air, the hologram looked almost exactly like the one Harper had shown them. Odie got up, pinching his chin and frowning as he analyzed it. Then he ran his finger along the top of the gun's barrel where there was an intricate design of swirls.

"You see this?" Odie asked. "This is what had me thrown off for so long."

"So long?" Jay repeated. "Odie, it's been _one_ day."

"I know," Odie said, giving Jay a blank look before continuing. "I thought it had been done for basic design-to match her personality or something. But when you analyze the microscopic proportions of the quad-uh-of the spirals, it creates an amplifier to withstand radioactivity-"

"Radioactivity?" Jay echoed in alarm, the stone in his pocket might as well have started burning.

"Yeah," Odie said, eyeing Jay curiously. "When you think about it, though, that's probably the wrong word for it-because I'm sure that radio waves are too large for the vibrations actually rebounding off the stones. But that's something to look into later."

"Uh... Good idea."

"So, anyway," Odie said, spinning around in his chair to face his computer screens. "If I can breakdown the substructural base coding of the microprocessing unites in the sensor recovery units of each piece, I should be able to replicate the interchangeble parts by adjusting the ionic settings of each device. That is, of course, assuming that he really did base the data functions on each individual's DNA."

Jay blinked. Of the entire team, he seemed to be the one who could manage to follow a majority of Odie's reasonings-but today he was totally stumped.

"Odie?" he called to the shorter boy as he dropped back, pinching the bridge of his nose as his head hit the opposite end of the mattress. Today was turning into a very long day, and it wasn't dinner time yet. "Can I trust you with something-that you won't tell the others?"

"Sure," Odie said with a small laugh, which pointed out that his friend should never have needed to ask. "What's up?"

Not even moving to sit up, Jay fished the rock out of its pocket with his free hand and held it in the air. He could easily imagine Odie's face, mouth open and eyes wide with shock for a few seconds before that intensely thoughtful expression could return as he scooted closer.

Had he opened his eyes, Jay wasn't all that far off, neglecting only the fact that Odie's glasses slid down his nose and the boy had to adjust them before he wheeled his chair close enough that it loudly bumped Jay's knees. Jay was instantly sitting up again, grimacing as he rubbed his knee caps. Odie, though, was entranced, staring at the stone as though it was something of a holy grail.

The shock and awe quickly melted away to a thoughtful frown as he looked at his teammate. "Hera doesn't think Iris is coming back, I take it?"

"Not anytime soon," Jay said with a shrug, motioning for Odie to take the Blue Chalcedony as his arm was starting to grow tired. But Odie was already too deep in though.

"And she doesn't trust all of us keeping quite about having that?" Odie asked.

Jay nodded. "She said I had to be careful of who I trusted this time around."

The smaller boy blinked at him, then smirked. "Well it's nice to know I made the cut!"

"Funny," Jay said and rolled his eyes.

Odie curled up into a thoughtful pose, pinching his chin with his right hand while his right arm braced his elbow, absently scooting himself back across the room to his computers. The next thing Jay knew, Odie's hands were flying across the keyboard and, with a strange sound that reminded Jay of a space movie, a metal pillar started rising from the floor.

"Set it on the electromagnetic—," Odie paused and glanced at Jay's blank face with a sheepish smile. "Sorry, balance it on the spikes."

Jay raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what he was talking about, when the top of the pillar opened to allow a metallic structure (that reminded him of a bird's claws) to rise up as a stand. He raised an eyebrow at the smaller teen, but set the stone down in the center.

As soon as Jay's hand left the stone, Odie was typing away controls that set up a clear cage around it. Jay regarded the trapped stone for another moment, then turned to the younger teen. "You sure it'll be safe in there?"

Odie took a moment to type a few more commands, before turning to Jay with a superior expression as he raised an eyebrow. "That's an electrified screening-even though it looks like plastic-and base, both made of an alloy I've put together: barium cobalt, tugsten, nibriturim and-for good measure-a little titanium," he said proudly. "This baby ain't going anywhere."

Jay nodded, satisfied and definitely impressed once again by his genius teammate, even if he hadn't followed much of anything he'd said. "Alright," he said, glancing at his watch. "We should probably head upstairs-dinner's probably in five minutes."

"Yeah, yeah, hold on a second," Odie said, spinning back to his computer screens to start up a few programs. "Let me just initialize readings."

"Okay," Jay said, leaning against the door frame. "Oh, and Odie?"

"There's no stone in my room and I was explaining crotonic plasma generators," Odie offered, spinning around again to grin as the displayed stone sunk back beneath the floor again. "Yeah, I know."

_**A/N:**__ Sorry about the long wait! If you've tuned in to my _Angelina_ story, then you've already heard that my computer is the grandmother of all technology and thus is beginning to fall apart. So posting/writing/all function is going a bit slow. But never fear! I'm still playing in the toybox ^_^_


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Archie had managed to grab the attention of a brunette teen who frowned with disgust when he mentioned Harper's name. "That Rapunzeled freak? Yeah I knew her. What do you want to know?"

"Sounds like you have a high opinion of her," he'd commented.

The girl behind the gate had scoffed and flicked her short hair off her face. "Yeah, well, we weren't exactly simpatico when she left."

"With her grandfather?"

"Nah," the girl had said, giving him a strange look. "When she went off to that school across town. Barely even saw her after that, but she still managed to ruin things."

"What school?"

"I dunno," She'd said with a shrug. "Still managed to keep mucking things up here though. Austin left not long after her."

"Wait—hold it!" Archie had all but shouted. "You're saying Harper used to live here?"

The girl had given him a look that let him know she was beginning to think he was dense and nodded.

"I thought she lived with her grandfather," Archie had objected.

The girl had let out a laugh. "Yeah, well, we're not even sure if the papers were legit," she'd said. "I mean, what kind of grandpa just shows up one day after the grandkids have been in the system for seven years? But he was alot like her, I guess—both weirdos."

Archie hadn't been able to ask any more questions, the grouchy girl had been called away to settle an argument between the younger kids in the yard, but it gave him enough to think about.

Finding Harper again had been easy enough, at least she hadn't lied about her schedule. Following her was only a little annoying—especially since all of the dancers he'd tried to strike up a conversation with had a strong sense of loyalty to each other. Outside of gentle teasing comments, none of them would divulge any information on the blonde and the conversations usually ended with them glaring suspiciously at him as they walked away.

Once they'd bumped into Jay, who'd been lost in a world of his own, and made their way back to the dorm, Archie nearly followed Harper up the stairs just to make sure she stayed there. Luckily he didn't need to because Atlanta and Teresa had walked in from the kitchen barely two seconds later, at which point he loudly commented on Harper's intent to do Yoga.

He returned Harper's glare with a mischievous smirk as his two teammates eagerly agreed to join her and hauled her up the stairs. Then he went off to his own basement bedroom, fully determined to find out what Harper was lying about.

...

Harper had never had a more stressful yoga session, she was sure of that. As soon as they'd gone through one sun salutation, Teresa had brought up the question that opened a can of worms.

"So," she'd started off slowly. "Atlanta and I went dress shopping today."

"Yeah?" Harper asked, trying to hold the Warrior Two pose and not fall over, when the older girl left too long of a pause.

"Mmhmm," Teresa said. "For Prom."

Harper let out a little squeak of a sound as she nearly made friends with the floor. "Uh," she said as she adjusted her footing. "Cool."

"And we couldn't help thinking," Teresa continued as the trio moved to the Plank pose. "You're going to need a gown too."

"Oof!" Somehow her hands slipped on the yoga mat and Harper found herself flat on the floor.

"Careful," Atlanta said with a chuckle.

Harper forced a laugh too, glad that they were doing an exercise to excuse her blush. "Thanks," she mumbled.

They continued following the instructor on the small tv screen for a few more salutations in thoughtful silence. Until, with a cry of surprise, Harper went down again.

Curious and trying to stifle their laughter, Teresa and Atlanta looked towards the door to find Herry standing there with an empty glass.

"Hey, Herry," Atlanta greeted him with a smirk.

"What are you looking for?" Teresa asked, giving the other girls sly glances.

Their teammate blinked at them for a second, but smiled. "Uh, hey," he responded. "I was going to show you this!"

He held up his cup. The girls now looked at each other in confusion as Harper got to her feet.

"An empty glass?" Atlanta asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Herry looked down at the glass in surprise, then disappointment. "Lemonade. I must have drank it all," he said as his smile faded. "I wanted to show you what color it was."

"Other than yellow or pink?" Teresa asked with a bemused smile.

"Yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "It was purple!"

"Purple?" Atlanta repeated, glancing at Harper who looked just as confused.

"I bet I can get some more," Herry said, suddenly delighted again. "Then I can show you!"

And with that he went bounding down the hall again.

The girls stared after him for a few moments. Each in a varied level of amusement and confusion.

"So when do you want to go?" Teresa asked when she got tired of the silence.

The blonde stared at her for a moment. "Go?"

"Dress shopping!" Teresa reminded her with a delighted smile.

"Oh. Right." Harper paled a little and tugged at a few strands of loose hair by her ear, then sat down on her mat as the video instructor's overly soft voice announced it was time for the cool-down.

Atlanta and Teresa followed her motion and soon all three girls were staring at the ceiling.

"I don't think I'm going," Harper said finally.

"What? Why not?" Teresa asked, sounding horrified at the idea of someone skipping prom.

"I'm not a senior," the blonde pointed out.

"So?" Atlanta asked, partially enjoying the idea of forcing the other girl to join them. "Go with one."

"I know of one who'd definitely be happy to take you," Teresa said with a smirk.

Harper glanced back, but all she could see was the other girls' legs and feet. "I don't know if I'm staying that long."

"Judging by Athena, I'd say you are," Atlanta put in.

"I don't... I'm not good at that whole... 'dolled up' thing," Harper said, knowing she was running out of excuses.

"That's where we help!" Teresa said happily, pushing up onto her side as the yoga instructor announced that they were done. "Don't worry about it! It'll be so much fun!"

Harper stayed flat on her mat, trying to cover the ill-at-ease feeling with a smile. Teresa gave her a reassuring smile and rolled up her mat.

"We'll go back to the mall tomorrow," Teresa said as Atlanta started rolling up her mat as well. "Say ten-ish? That way we can still make it to a few sales. Sound good?"

Pressing her lips together, Harper nodded.

"Good!" Teresa declared happily, already thinking back on dresses that might fit her new friend. "Well, I'm going to change again before dinner. See ya downstairs!"

"Right," Harper said from her floor mat. "See ya."

"Don't look so panicked," Atlanta said with a chuckle. "I'll make sure she doesn't go too crazy."

Harper gave the redhead a small grateful smile, but her eyes went back to the skylight as Atlanta left the room. She was getting in too deep with this. She had too many other things to worry about, and now Prom. How was she supposed to do what needed to be done and juggle everything surrounding Prom? And there was another point that she hadn't been able to force out.

She was going dress shopping? Right. With what money?

_**A/N:**__ Short-ish, I really just kinda needed to break up a section of the story. Hopefully it works *shrug* Ummm... ^_^ We get to see some of the effects of the lemonade..._


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

He'd watched her closely through the house dinner of macaroni and cheese. Nearly everyone else was fine around her, but Archie wasn't going to let that fool him. Teresa and Atlanta were talking with Harper about different dress styles she might want to try (though for what, Archie couldn't begin to figure). Odie was asking more questions about her teammate's technology. Neil was arguing to no one in particular that there was no way Harper's teammate could be better looking than himself.

There were only two exceptions to the normal facade. Jay was lost in his own thoughts which, though sometimes strange, was not uncommon for the brunette. Herry, though, was unnaturally quiet too as he happily stared at Harper from her side. And he wasn't eating that much-which sent up warning flags no matter how you spun it.

Afterward there'd been a round of video games, where Odie maintained his gloating rights as champion, but everyone had ended going off to their rooms by ten-thirty.

Thinking back on the meal, recounting everyone's attention, made Archie quickly sit upright. He hadn't fully paid attention to it before, but that's probably because she was a goddess.

Athena had been acting strange too.

He'd only looked at her once, but when he had, the goddess had been watching Harper closely. Like she'd been waiting for something to happen. But whatever it was, it must not have happened because the war goddess was soon out of the house to visit Aphrodite.

Archie frowned at the darkness in his room. Athena and Aphrodite were polar opposites, they scarcely ever spent time together by choice. Not that he thought they should, in his opinion Love and War should never cross.

He blinked. One phrase came to mind, and it made him cringe a little. Not knowing what else to think, he hoped Zeus knew to reign his daughters in before either of them did something they'd regret. Ok, fine, something _Archie_ would regret.

In an effort to keep himself from jumping to conclusions, Archie ran his tired mind over the pieces of knowledge he'd gotten from the girl at Happydale Home for Neglected Youngsters. What had happened to Harper's family? Was her grandfather really her grandfather? And if he was, then where was he? Had Harper even tried to contact him since they'd taken her in?

He'd just started mulling over who Austin might be, when he heard a muffled metal clang. Frowning, Archie leapt to his feet and tripped his way over to his small bedroom window.

The alley was aglow in the full moon's light, creating a scene that he could easily imagine being the inspiration for a Sherlock Holmes story or Edgar Allan Poe poem. And at first he couldn't see anything unusual, but then a stray cat got spooked and a girl's voice muttering a soft curse of irritation drew his attention toward the end of the alley. Toward the street, where a teen girl's pale skin was shining whiter than pretty much anything he could see against her simple dark party dress.

What made her unmistakable was more than the slight limp or the wary gaze she kept casting around, it was the long braid of golden hair that just reached her waist. Harper.

For a moment, Archie could only stare. What a difference. She wasn't gorgeous by any means, Atlanta could easily out shine Harper even on a bad day, but despite her typical style it appeared that Harper did actually know how to use cosmetics and walk in a pair of dainty heels.

As Harper gave the alleyway one more glance and stepped toward the lighted sidewalk, Archie raced back across his room and fumbled with the zipper of his hoodie in his haste to switch it with a leather jacket he'd borrowed from Neil. It was a shorter torso, but at this point, black was probably better to wear than the blue she'd caught him following her in earlier.

Then he bolted out of his room, up the stairs, and out the door of the dorm. A quick glance down the street as he hopped down to the sidewalk assured him that she hadn't gotten far, barely three doors down the block. Trying not to sprint after her, Archie pulled up the jacket's collar and pulled on a pair of sunglasses Neil had left in the pocket, which only made him happier that night was bright anyway.

He'd just turned the corner when he bothered to check his watch. "Eleven-forty-two,"he muttered, only frowning some more as his gaze returned to the girl in front of him. "Where are you going at quarter to midnight?"

One more block over, Harper stopped at the large parking garage behind one of New Olympia's theatres where she stepped over to a waiting cab. Archie held back, hiding himself at pedestrian's entrance to the garage as he watched the quiet exchange. The younger girl smiled at the cabby as they talked, making Archie sure that she was the reason a cab was waiting behind a theatre on a night that noone was performing.

When Harper moved to climb into the taxi's back seat, Archie nearly leapt after her. But thanks to the street lamp, he caught a flash of green. A small gift back hanging from her wrist. Instantly he remembered the conversation he'd overheard her share with those other dancers.

The cab pulled away and hung a right, plunging further into the nightlife center of the city, and Archie watched it go with a near smile as he sauntered away from his hiding place. He knew where she was going.

...

"You have no idea how surprised I was to hear from you, kid!" The cabbie said, chuckling warmly as he glanced in the rear-view. "All these years and you're finally back, ey? I was beginning to think you weren't coming back. Or that you'd gotten a car."

"A car?" Harper repeated, then laughed. "Vinnie, why on earth would I want to drive in the city?"

He chuckled again, shaking his head. "Beats me, kid, but stranger things have happened, ey?"

She gave her own chuckle of agreement, glancing back. Her pursuer was gone. Or at least he wasn't following closely anymore. It wasn't like she was imagining it, she'd followed and been followed enough in her life to know that prickly feeling on her neck meant that someone was close and gaining.

At first she'd thought it was Archie, but every time she'd glanced back the boy's trademark blue sweatshirt was nowhere to be seen. In a way she was relieved that she'd finally gotten around the suspicious purple-haired nuisance, but then it made her skin crawl with goosebumps. If it wasn't Archie... then who did she hear following her?

The possibilities weren't endless, but none were something to look forward to and only made her wish she could get to the party faster.

"You okay, kid?"

Harper wrenched herself out of the thoughts that were starting to make her panic and looked up at the rearview mirror, where she could see Vinnie's dark eyes dart back at her every so many seconds.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine," she said, flashing a quick smile. "Just-uh-anxious to be back."

The cabbie studied her for a moment as they waited at a red light, but nodded (satisfied) as the light turned green. "Must be a change from your globe-trotting, ey?"

Harper huffed a laugh, her eyes going back to the neon lights that flew past her window. "Yeah," she said. "Definitely a big change."

The next few twists and turns went by in silence, which Harper was both grateful for and hated. When the taxi slowed to a stop in a very busy part of town for so late at night, she gathered her things and leaned forward with a bill.

"I'll probably be out of here by one-thirty," she said, already feeling tired. "Mind coming back for me?"

"For you, Harper? Of course," Vinnie said with a friendly smile before he gave her a serious look. "You call me if you ever need to, okay, kid?"

Harper sighed, happy for his comfort. "I will."

"I mean it," Vinnie shouted after her as she scooted out onto the sidewalk.

She laughed and smiled back into the cab. "I know! Say hi to Ethel for me!"

The cabbie grinned at the mention of his wife, then tipped his cap as she shut the door and pulled away from the sidewalk.

...

Archie knew of the club Harper was heading for and where secret section for High Schoolers was. Not because he'd ever been there, mind you, but he knew where it was. A bus ride later landed him in the heart of the city's nightlife. Clubs and theatres and concert halls lined the street, lending noise and chaos to the night.

To his surprise, taking the bus had actually gotten Archie there about three seconds before Harper stepped out of the cab again. She leaned back, probably to thank the cabbie, then tossed her braid over her shoulder and continue down the street a little before turning through an iron gate that was supposed to close off an alleyway.

Making good time, Archie followed at barely steps behind, but he stopped at the gate and watched Harper approach a sub-level side door a little more than half way down the building. He pulled back as she turned to glance anxiously around. When he looked again she was reaching for the doorknob, but she tensed as though spooked and looked further down the alleyway again.

Archie looked too, frowning. What could possibly scare the annoying girl who tried to take on a river guardian? But his attention was drawn back to the door as it was wrenched open, making both Archie and Harper jump in surprise.

"Harper!" A guy who had a build alot like Herry's stood in the doorway wearing a plain black shirt and loose-fitting jeans, grinning down at her. "Get in here before I have to carry you!"

The girl's face broke into a grin. "Yeah, you'd have to catch me first, Maurice."

"In those heels?" the guy said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced down at her feet. "You wouldn't make it five steps."

"Who says I'd keep them on?" Harper asked, taking slow and deliberate steps down to the door.

"Everyone," Maurice affirmed. "Unless you want a host of tetanus shots."

Harper made a face at him, but had already stepped past him when she responded. "Eew! Grosse!"

Maurice chuckled. "Get to the party, Minx," he said, turning from the alleyway, giving Archie ample time to sneak forward. "The birthday boy's been waiting for you."

"No he hasn't!" Harper's voice objected, growing fainter with each word. "He doesn't know I'm in town yet..."

The door, heavy and metal, probably would have slammed shut, but thinking quickly, Archie had flung the end of his whip forward, easily hooking the impervious metal into the doorframe.

Smirking in triumph, it only took him moments to slip inside and work the weapon free, closing the door behind him. There were at least 25 steps down after the door before Archie found himself in a room that looked like one of those places from the 1930's. A speak-easy or something. And if it weren't for the few modern outfits, he'd have thought he'd stumbled into a movie shoot, instead of a hidden teen hangout below a modern club's dance floor.

Neil would like it here. Every now and then the modeling-hero would hit these strides of doing everything "retro" and drive everyone nuts for a good week or five with his insistence on fashion sense. All the more reason to never tell him about this place.

The club was a little crowded, but Archie managed to duck out of the doorman's way (by means of a nicely placed closet) as he headed back up the stairs. After waiting a few minutes, Archie moved out into the open, never more happy to be wearing Neil's coat. To at least some extent it made him look like he could possibly blend in a little.

"Harper!"

Archie ducked into a small coatroom. The blond was quickly accosted by two girls he'd seen her with at one of the dance studios. The girls giggled as they hugged her and asked what seemed like hundreds of questions in squeaks that hurt his ears.

"Yeah, I will," Harper said in answer to one of them. "Where's Haileigh?"

"Over there," the shortest girl said, pointing across the dance floor. "And don't forget to see Chase!"

"I will! I will!" Harper said with a laugh, then pried herself loose.

Archie followed quietly, attempting to not stand out like a sore thumb by keeping to the edge of the room. Luckily, Harper found a table not very far away from a safe little nook he quickly hid in.

...

As antsy as she was before, by the time Harper reached her friends' table, she was ready to run right back out the door. But she highly doubted any of them would allow that. And the look that Haileigh was giving her proved the other girl still knew her well enough to be ready to pounce if need-be.

So with a rueful smile, Harper took up the empty seat.

"Bout time!" the petite brunette at the table shouted. "We were beginning to think you weren't gonna show!"

"More like Mari thought you weren't going to show," the girl with braids said. "I said you'd be here when it's practically over."

"And I'm the one who won the pool," Haileigh said proudly, giving Harper a conspiratorial smirk before holding her hand out to their friends. "Pay up! Five bucks each!"

The two girls quickly said something about needing the bathroom or seeing someone they hadn't seen in a while, and quickly left their company. Harper and Haileigh laughed after them, shaking their heads.

"I'm surprised you didn't say more like twenty," Harper said.

Haileigh snickered and took a sip of her lemonade. "I should have."

They sat in silence for a moment or two, both watching the other teens in their social circle enjoying the music and showing off.

"So what have you been up to?" Haileigh asked, leaning forward on the small table. "I like the new dress."

"Thanks," Harper said, quieter than she had been as she glanced down at the purple fabric.

Haileigh gave her a smile that most would have called dazzling, then it faded away as she got next to no response from the other girl. Hesitantly she asked, "So what's wrong?"

...

Through the chatter and music (which Archie could swear was getting louder just to spite him), Harper had gone quiet. Or maybe she had answered, judging by the other girl's face she probably did. And whatever it was, it didn't seem to be a good thing. Instantly Haileigh leaned closer and the two started talking in conspirital tones that were little more than a strange extra hum by the time it reached Archie's ears.

After a moment or two, Haileigh sat back in her seat, looking perplexed and concerned. "So... are you going to find them?"

Harper hesitated. "I don't know."

"You have to!" Haileigh yelped.

"How?" Harper cried out, her hands going to her hair in frustration. "I don't even know where to look!"

The other girl frowned, then shook her head. "I don't know," she said after a moment. "But if he's back, he'll be coming after—."

"Good evening, Ladies!"

Both girls jumped as some tall guy with spiky black hair practically bounded over to their table. He pulled them both into a tight and (what looked like) incredibly uncomfortable hug, before letting them go to grin at them. "I heard that a certain braided blonde was back in town."

"You heard right," Haileigh said, grinning as well.

Harper groaned and, from what Archie could see of her, she turned bright pink.

"And you didn't come say hello?!" the guy demanded, looking aghast. Then he frowned at her in mock indignation. "You were supposed to be my partner for Arts in the Park."

"I know..." Harper muttered loudly.

"And do you know who had to step in?" he asked. "Rachel."

Harper grimaced. "Oh, I am so sorry. Why didn't Ms. Funnel have Mara or Danielle step in? They're better than me."

"True, but Mara and Danielle already had partners. And Haileigh here had sprained her ankle," he informed her. "But, you can make it up to me now. You owe me two dances."

She gaped at him as Hailiegh broke into giggles. "What?!"

"Right now!" He affirmed. "It's my birthday—you're not allowed to say no."

"I haven't been dancing while I was away, you know," she said.

"Doesn't matter," the guy said, shaking his head and already dancing to the music. "You know these steps."

...

Clearly Harper knew this guy pretty well, or at least well enough that they did a whole tango that had to have been choreographed. And it was pretty good, though Archie was never going to admit it. The last step, though, had Harper hanging from her partner's grip and looking at the world up-side-down behind her—right at Archie.

The blonde's eyes went large and her laughter went away as she nearly fell from the guy's hands, but she managed to pull another smile onto her face as she was pulled to her feet again. Around the pair, all of the partiers burst into applause with a few shouts of "me next, Chase!" Harper nodded in thanks as the birthday boy sauntered up to another pretty girl, then she ducked away and cast a glance back towards Archie, who pulled his collar a little higher and moved away from the booth.

Harper's gaze followed him, though, and once he'd found a seat along the wall, a waitress appeared next to him with a soda. "Uhh." He stared at the drink as the girl put it down. "I didn't order this."

"Yeah, Chase's floor girl sent it over," the waitress said, nodding back towards the table where Harper was sitting with her friends again. The blonde might have been smiling and laughing with those near her, but Archie could see the heightened attention in her eyes as she glanced his way again. With her eyes locked on his, she gave him an irritated look then lifted her own glass and took a sip as though it were a peace offering.

Archie kept the glass at a distance.

Harper frowned openly, drawing questions from those around her and curious glances were sent Archie's way, but he quickly turned to duck behind his collar.

A few tense moments passed before he looked back. Then he nearly had a heart attack.

She wasn't with her friends. A frantic look around the room gave him no sign of the long braid anywhere in the crowd. Panicking, Archie raced towards the stairs, thinking that it would at least give him a higher view if nothing else.

By a stroke of luck, that turned out to be the best thing he could have done. Harper's golden hair moved just out of view before the door to the alley closed.

He took the stairs two at a time, bursting into the night a little louder than he'd planned. But Harper wasn't there to turn towards him, she was already on the sidewalk. Huffing from the climb and growing irritation, Archie did his best to creep along the wall until he was crouched by the building's corner.

"You're still not good at stealth!" Harper informed him without even looking away from the busy street.

Giving up on trying to hide at the entrance to the alley, Archie straightened his coat dodged a few people to stand next to her. "Well I'm good enough," he said. "You couldn't lose me."

Harper rolled her eyes. "I have more important things on my mind than you and how much you don't like me."

Archie shot her a glare, which she didn't pay attention to, but returned his attention to watching the street just like she was. "I'd like you more if you'd tell the truth," he said. "Instead of turning the conversation all the time."

"I've answered every question anyone's asked me," she said defiantly. "Just because you wanted more of an answer than I have to give you doesn't make me a liar."

"Maybe not, but it doesn't make you trustworthy either," he countered.

"Is that why you didn't drink the water I sent you?" She asked, the pitch of her voice going up a notch. "Did you think I'd poisoned it or something?"

"Clubbing 101, Rapunzel, don't drink anything you didn't order yourself or watch pour," Archie said.

Harper bristled at the name. "Well excuse me for thinking of getting you a drink instead of pointing you out to Maurice or Chase like I should have!"

"Maybe you should have," Archie snapped right back.

"Next time I will!"

A loud car horn made the arguing teens jump and Harper spun, hitting Archie with the end of her braid as she did so, to see a familiar cab pulling to the curb. Then she turned back to him with one of her own hearty glares. "You're not coming with me."

"Like I'd actually want to be stuck in a car with you," he sneered.

She gave him another scathing look as she opened the cab's door. "Enjoy your ride home," she said with a voice sweet as acid as she dropped inside. "Try to make it back by two." Then she slammed the door and the cab took off from the curb.

"I will!" Archie shouted after the red taillights.

It wasn't until he'd gotten back to the bus stop that he realized what she'd meant. None of the busses was going to take him in a direct like back to the dorm. The closest he could find was a seven stop loop through the bohemian section of the city before he could get dropped off three blocks down.

He kicked a littered can closer to the trash bin and sat down on the bench to wait. It was going to be a long night.

_**A/N:**__ Sorry for the ridiculously long delay! Too many things got in the way, but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem continuing on (wishful thinking, I know). Anyway, hopefully this chapter's not too hodge-podged to come through clear, kinda wanted to get more of a wedge between Harper and Archie. lol Let me know if there's something amiss! ^_^_


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Someone tried to take it last night," Odie reported quietly over his cereal.

Jay looked at him sharply, but Odie gave him a tired smile.

"Don't worry, nobody can get past my defenses," he said confidently. Down the table, Archie looked from one boy to the other, exhausted but curious all the same.

"For what?" was the tired question along with a yawn that announced Harper's arrival. Not waiting for an answer, she dragged herself over to the fridge.

"Well you're having a late morning," Archie said, waiting for a reaction of any kind with a narrowed gaze.

Finding a small plate of pancakes, which she promptly shoved into the microwave, Harper rounded on him with a glare. "Yeah, well I had a late night," she snapped. "And I could say the same about you, AJ."

Archie blinked. "What?"

Jay and Odie exchanged glances.

"What?" Harper asked, turning as the microwave beeped loudly.

"You just called me AJ," Archie pointed out.

"No I didn't," Harper said, her cheeks burning slightly as she joined them at the table. "I said 'Archie,' get your ears checked."

He scowled at her and started to respond, but Jay stepped in first. "So what'd you do last night, then?"

"Met up with some friends at Jean-Luc's," Harper said, cooling down a little as she focused on her food.

"Jean-Luc's?" Jay repeated.

"Underaged club downtown," Archie supplied, earning him another glare from Harper.

Jay and Odie exchanged glances again, but both shrugged and let whatever issue was between the two teens go unsaid.

"So, what's our next step?" Odie asked lightly, looking back at Jay.

The taller teen shrugged. "Look for Iris, I guess," he said. "But where would you hide the goddess of rainbows?"

"Desert," Harper chimed instantly, though she didn't look any more awake or interested in what was going on than she had when she'd first walked in.

"Huh?"

She frowned at Archie's response, but looked at the other two. "She needs places that are damp-that have mists going on or lots of rain. Think Vancouver or Seattle. She can pass over dry areas every now and then, but her powers probably aren't as strong."

"And how do you know all this?" Archie asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Because I read, dipstick," Harper sneered back.

"Makes sense," Jay said, as Archie opened his mouth again, fully trying to avoid a headache this early. "She's goddess of rainbows, right? She needs moisture. But what dessert? There's a dozen or something, right?"

His questioning gaze was met with blank stares from the feuding pair. But when his gaze turned to Odie, the shorter boy grinned proudly. "Yeah, I'll string up a list of the most likely places by time Teresa and Atlanta get up."

.:.:.

"Amazing," Atlanta huffed as she trudged up what had to be the biggest sand-dune on the planet. "It's the middle of spring break. Other kids are on cruises or camping trips-what are we doing? Scouring deserts for the goddess of rainbows."

Somehow looking more 'put together' than anyone in their position should be and striding a good five to ten paces (and growing) ahead of her, Teresa turn to hike backward as she grinned. "We've been through worse."

"Doesn't make this any more sane," Atlanta growled, pausing to drink from her water canteen. This was quickly becoming her favorite upgrade of Hephaestus's—a water bottle that was light, durable, and magically refilled with water! There were no words to describe how much she adored that particular god at the moment.

Though she'd have loved him even more if he'd thought of those dune-rider hover crafts before they's been sent off into the middle of nowhere.

"Just think of it this way," Teresa said, chuckling a little. "At least we're on the same team."

"True," Atlanta said, smirking. "Plus with Neil here, maybe we'll find a spa out here or something."

Teresa snorted. "Yeah, that's wishful thinking."

Atlanta shrugged and broke into a grin. "A girl can dream!"

Their giggles rang through the air, before each girl sighed and Teresa looked over the large expanse of desert ahead of them.

"Urgh!" Atlanta groaned. "How the heck are we supposed to find a goddess of rainbows out here?"

"Well, to some extent, she'd probably stick out," Teresa offered with a shrug.

Atlanta snorted. "Yeah, as a needle in a haystack. And where is Neil?"

Teresa glanced around again, then frowned and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she gazed barely five feet away over the crest of the dune. "Tanning."

Both girls looked down at the lounging model and let out groans of disbelief. It wasn't that they didn't believe it, but finding him chilling in the way too hot sun while they were supposed to be finding Iris was drawing the line.

"Neil!"

"What?" the blonde asked, moving his sunglasses ever so slightly to give them an innocent look. "When am I ever going to get this kind of lighting in New Olympia?"

"Neil, we're supposed to be looking for Iris!" Atlanta reprimanded.

The part-time model simply shrugged and went back to smiling upwards as he basked in the sun's overbearing glow. Atlanta shook her head and Teresa fought the urge to roll her eyes as she pulled out another device that Hephestus had whipped up that morning. The best she could understand of it was that it could project twenty square miles as a 3D map, complete with buildings, trees, caves, and anything else that could possibly be in the area with just a quick scan.

So she held it high and pressed the blue button, then watched in amusement as a ray of green light took in everything. Once the light disappeared again, she lowered her hand to look at the holographic display screen. Instantly digital waves of nothingness appeared, along with tiny image of the three of them on the dune's crest. Teresa sighed.

Next to her, Atlanta had a hand shading her sunglasses as she peered around the desert. "Can we just call it a day?" she asked. "Ya know, it's not like we're gonna find anything. We've already gone... how far?"

"Not far enough, apparently," Teresa muttered, still squinting at the ocean of sand.

Atlanta flopped back in the sand. Neil looked down in surprise then, finding her down there, he smiled and said, "See? Aren't the rays great?"

Rolling her eyes, Teresa pulled out her PMR and called Odie.

"Yo," was the tired answer. "Found anything?"

"Nothing but a new tanning spot for Neil," she reported glancing back to smirk as Atlanta busied herself sprinkling sand all over the model's feet. "You get anything over there?"

"Less than you have," her teammate reported. "Jay, Harper, and Herry haven't had much luck either. I just talked to them."

Teresa sighed. This was looking even more hopeless than it did when Odie had suggested the idea that morning. "Alright," she said. "We're giving it one more hour-."

"Ah, c'mon! Seriously?" Atlanta groaned.

"-and if we haven't found anything then you'll find us in the Florida Keys," Teresa finished, casting her teammates a smirk. Instantly the two teens looked up and grins spread across their faces.

"Oh I am so up for that!" Neil cheered.

"Yeah, great," Odie's voice said wryly. "If Archie keeps complaining, I'll race you there."

Atlanta let out a sound of disgust. "Let me guess?" she asked loudly. "He thinks Harper's trying to get us all to bake out here so she can take over New Olympus?"

"Something like that," Odie said with a tight laugh.

"See you at the Keys, then," Atlanta shouted towards the PDA with a cheeky grin.

Odie gave another small laugh and the call ended.

A brief moment passed. Teresa gazed out at the desert again, but Atlanta looked between the two of her teammates. "So," she said slowly. "What are the chances we could just go to the Florida Keys now?"

Teresa raised an eyebrow at her, but smirked. "Not high."

"Well we could always just go towards that shiny thing," Neil said, blandly gesturing across the dune to the crag-rock formations a good three more miles across the desert.

"Seriously?" Atlanta groaned. "Can't we not and say we did?"

Teresa gave her a tired smile but shook her head. "I don't want to be out here any more than you do," she said and gave her friend's arm a tug. "But, with our luck today, that's probably where she is."

"Fine," Atlanta said as Teresa pulled her to her feet again. "But if she's not there, we're heading to the keys!"

"Ooh," Neil cooed, bounding to his feet. "I'm all for that!"

Fighting back chuckles, Teresa rolled her eyes. "C'mon."

She led the way, finding it just as tricky to keep her footing on her way down as it had been on their way up the dune, but at least sliding down the sand would get them where they needed to go. It wasn't a cave, per say. More like an overhang of rocks, but at its base was a large opal that glistened even more than any she'd ever seen. And Teresa had seen her fair share of semi-precious stones.

"Oh well!" Atlanta said, almost too happily. "Not here, guess we have to head to the coast!"

"No, wait," Teresa said, quickly grabbing hold of the other girl's arm. "Look at this. You never see opals like that in the middle of nowhere."

"I thought Opals came from the desert," Neil pointed out. "So what's the big deal?"

"They do?" Atlanta asked, looking at her two friends curiously before looking down at the stone.

"Yes, somewhat. But look at this, its already been carved," Teresa said, running her finger over the smooth edge. But maybe she shouldn't have.

Instantly she froze as a prickling feeling crawled over her skin. In the time it took to gasp, she was somewhere else. Most might have been alarmed, and she had been once too, but now moments like these were almost as familiar as her reflection. It was a vision.

Everything around her was lacking color and sound, leaving the scene to look something like watching flashes of an old silent film, but at least she knew to pay attention. The first image was of a young girl with long hair that even with out color seemed to have hundreds of different shades to it as she hopped down a waterfall. The next was of Cronus in his lair somewhere dark and creepy, but he had a spotlight on and a strange looking glove on one hand while the other fired a spray bottle in front of the light. She could only barely make out the shades of the rainbow as the vision shifted again, closing in on the spray Cronus had created. In a moment almost too quick to see, the titan lord had grabbed at the rainbow he'd created.

A girl's face-the same girl from the waterfall-appeared momentarily in the falling mist, but soon she was gone. The vision shifted again, showing Cronus laughing as he held up his gloved hand. And the glove was moving on its own. The vision shifted again, showing Cronus trekking across some unremarkable sand-dunes as fist-sized droplets fell in his wake from the glove on his hand. When the scene shifted again, it showed the titan lord peeling off his glove only to toss it into a deep pit of some kind before vanishing into thin air.

Then it felt like Teresa was thrown back into her own head.

Neil and Atlanta quickly steadied her, both looking fairly anxious.

"What was that all about?" Atlanta asked.

"Not used to dealing with Opals?" Neil asked, earning him a reprimanding glare from Atlanta.

"Vision," Teresa said, rubbing her temples to make the strained ache go away. "This is from Iris."

"You're sure?" Atlanta asked, looking back to the gem warily.

"And you didn't want to go look at the shiny," Neil teased, avoiding Atlanta's reaction to hit him by leaning down to pick up the stone. He turned the opal this way and that, before discovering that its back side had a smooth reflective surface. Then he spent the next few moments admiring himself. "Now I get it," he remarked, grinning at his reflection. "I totally get it."

"Get what?" Altanta demanded as Teresa got back to her feet.

"Why those vampire books are so popular," he said, still entranced with himself. "Look at how I sparkle! I look amazing!"

Atlanta groaned and shook her head. Teresa smirked, then pulled out her PDA. "Odie?"

"Yo!"

"I think we've got a problem."

.:.:.

"She's trapped in a glove?" Jay repeated, unable to keep the skepticism from his voice as he, Herry and Harper looked down at Odie's image on the tiny display screen.

"Yep," the image affirmed with a nod. "According to Teresa."

"So she's got the glove?" Harper asked, looking confused.

"Uh, no," Odie admitted. "She got a vision off an opal."

"What?" Harper asked, her eyes widening.

"Yeah, apparently Iris's tears or something turned into opals while Cronus was getting to wherever he hid her," Odie explained.

"Oh."

"But they're close, right?" Jay asked. If nothing else he wanted to get the weight of having the blue chalcedony off his shoulders before someone actually did break through Odie's securities.

"Teresa thinks so," Odie reported with a nod. "She said that Cronus walked across a sand dune and the glove was leaving opals like bread crumbs."

"She saw Cronus?" Harper gasped.

"In her vision," Jay clarified before returning his attention to the screen. "Alright, let Teresa know we're on our way-."

"Atlanta and Neil may not like that," Odie said with a chuckle. "They've been threatening to call it quits and hang out in the Florida Keys."

Jay gave a dry laugh. "They can go later," he said. "Can you get Hermes to open a portal?"

"No sweat, see ya in a few," Odie said and, with a smirk, cut the transmission.

"S-so, uh, Teresa gets visions?" Harper asked, picking at the end of her sleeve.

"Yeah, she kinda sees snippets of things that have happened," Herry explained. "Or are happening."

Harper looked up in surprise and practically jumped away when she saw how closely he was standing. "Really?"

The tall boy nodded. "Yeah, she used to read minds too," he said. "And a whole bunch of other stuff, but her powers kinda went haywire and shorted her back to just visions again."

She stared at him, then glanced to Jay for confirmation. The older boy nodded absently, still working on his PMR. "With any luck, that won't happen again."

"Yeah," Harper mumbled.

"Huh?" Jay looked up.

"I-uh-why?" Harper asked, hoping she wasn't blushing too deeply as she struggled to change the focus. "I mean, uh, wouldn't that be a good thing? You know, if you could see into Cronus's head?"

"That part was cool," Herry said enthusiastically.

He blinked at her, then looked thoughtfully at his PMR again. "It did help with that," he admitted. "She nearly beat him because of that..."

She waited a moment or two, as a sinking feeling entered her gut. "But?"

"But it ended up being a bigger hindrance than a help," he said.

"Oh," she said, twisting the charm on her necklace.

"You don't have to worry," Herry assured her. "We'll beat him another way."

"Right," Harper said, forcing a smile though she didn't stop twirling her necklace. "Another way."

Jay gave her a strange look, but at that moment a strange sound filled the air and the teens found themselves looking at what might as well have been a rip in reality. Leading right back into Hermes' tech-filled rooms.

"Portal's here!" Herry announced. "C'mon!"

The boys quickly strode towards the out-of-place scene, but Harper hung back. Still twisting the necklace charm as she glanced back across the empty desert.

"Harper," Herry called to her. "Are you coming?"

Jay was looking back at her too when Harper looked up, though his expression wasn't as eagerly expectant as Herry's was. She forced another smile. "Uh, yeah. Coming. Of course."

The taller boy held out a hand towards her with a smile. She tried to give him an appreciative smile, but she felt like it was more of a grimace as she avoided his hand and followed them back into New Olympia.

_**A/N:**__ Holy crow that took a long time! You have every reason to yell at me for taking so long. I have a long list of reasonable excuses, but when it comes down to it, excuses do little more than slow up life in self-defense. So anyway. Hopefully there's not too many errors and such and even more hopefully I'll be able to carve another chunk of this story out sooner than this one took! Oh, and for those of you who are getting irritable about Harper and Archie going at it, it's in their DNA so, sorry, but you'll have to deal. And Herry... well... go back a couple chapters..._


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Taking a detour through Hermes' office ended up taking a bit longer than they'd expected. As soon as the trio had joined Odie and Archie on the other side of the portal, Hephestus had come bursting into the room with the finished prototype of his dune-rider. Then it turned out that the god hadn't actually seen Harper yet and pulled the girl into a hug.

"Hi, Hephestus," Harper grunted as the god's embrace hoisted her off her feet.

The god chortled and swung her a little like a child might do with their favorite toy, before setting her down again and sizing her up. "You've been here for how long and haven't bothered contacting your old ancestor?"

"You're related to Hephestus?" Herry asked, staring between the two in bewilderment.

"Of course she is!" Hephestus said, barking out another laugh and shaking the girl's shoulders. "Her line wouldn't even be here without me! But she still forgets to stop in and say hello."

"I've been busy," she said with a guilty shrug, her face fairly pink with embarrassment as Odie and Archie joined them. "And crutches aren't the safest thing to be on in your workshop."

Hephestus let out another laugh and clapped her on the back again. "How true that is!" he announced, looking her over again. "Looks like you got off them pretty quick, though. Never could slow you up for long, could they?"

"Uh, Hephestus?" Odie interrupted as Harper opened her mouth to comment back. "We really, kinda need to get going. Iris in danger and all that."

"Right you are!" the smithy god roared, but instead he kept a firm grip on Harper's arm and gave them a smile that announced he'd made up his mind about their activities. "Don't let us keep you."

The boys blinked at them before exchanging glances at each other.

"Uhh..."

"Yeah, no worries," Harper said quickly, flashing them hurried smile. "Phest and I'll hang out in the workshop and, uh, figure out how to get Iris out of the glove."

"Huh?" Hephestus raised and eyebrow at her. "What'd that rainbow get herself into this time?"

"Plus, I'm already half way to sunburning," she continued, looking down at her exposed arms.

"I'll stay too, then," Herry offered.

"No, really, that's okay," Harper said, taking a subconscious step back even though Hephestus's grip didn't let her go far. "You-uh- you go help Teresa and Atlanta and Neil. They might need someone strong or something."

"Jay's strong," Herry said with a shrug.

"Not that strong," Archie snorted, earning him a small glare from their leader.

"Either way," Odie said loudly, "we need to get going."

Herry didn't look pleased, but followed the other boys to the new portal that opened to show the missing trio near something of a cave that jutted out of a sand-dune. With one final glance and Harper's attempt at an encouraging smile, the boys disappeared along with the scene, leaving only the sound of Hermes' high-tech system processing messages.

"Alright, c'mon," Hephestus announced, directing Harper to the door. "Let's go down to my more civilized rooms and you can tell me why little miss Technicolor is in the desert with a glove."

...:..:...

"See, now _this_ is more my thing," Atlanta announced as the team of heroes climbed up random area of rocky hills in the desert. "So much better than sand."

"Speak for yourself," Neil groaned a good seven feet below her, examining his shoes. "My poor Clarks will never be the same again!"

"You'll live," Teresa said, rolling her eyes as she and Atlanta shared a smirk.

"Right, so, we think this is the end of the trail?" Jay asked, stepping past the girls to stare around at the top of the rocks.

"This is as far as I saw," Teresa said with a shrug as she joined him, adding a hand to her hat's visor for more shade. "Well, that and then looking up at him."

"Right," Jay said, half muttering to himself. "So... do you think you can find where he was standing?"

Odie, Teresa, and Atlanta each raised an eyebrow to look at him incredulously before exchanging glances and trooping off together to hop across the range of rocks. "Don't worry," Teresa said as she passed him. "We'll figure it out. How about you deal with whatever's wrong with Archie and Herry?"

"Yeah," Odie agreed as he and Atlanta followed her. "And Neil."

"Good luck!" was Atlanta's far too cheerful comment as she nearly bounded away.

A split-second of confusion caught him off guard, but Jay soon understood why they'd been so eager to take up his (now that he thought on it) far less than rational suggestion. A few feet away and closing in, Archie was nose-to-collar-bone with Herry and both boys looked like they were getting ready to deal punches.

"Woah, hey!" Jay shouted and tried to step between them. "What's-?"

"Take it back!" Herry growled, ignoring Jay completely.

"No," Archie snapped. "You know I'm right!"

"Right about what?" Jay tried.

"No, you're not!" Herry roared. "Take it back or, Hera help me, I'm gonna deck you one!"

"Yeah? Well, c'mon Hercules," Archie sneered. "Take your best shot!"

"Hey!" Jay shouted, forcing himself between them this time. "What's gotten into you two? Knock it off! Herry, go help Neil get up here."

"Fine," the larger boy said after another glare at Archie. "But next time, I say we bring Harper and leave Archie home."

Jay gaped after him. Seriously, what was wrong with his teammate?

"Yeah, great idea," Archie hollered after him. "Ignore your real teammate for some girl who you can trust about as far as you can throw her!"

"Archie," Jay said with a sigh. "You might be over-reacting."

"Well maybe you're under-reacting," Archie countered, though a sheepish blush came to his cheeks. "Doesn't it bother you? At all? She shows up and just happens to know exactly everything we need?"

"You're right," Jay admitted quietly before the purple haired boy could continue. "It is suspicious-really suspicious-but we can't just decide she's working for Cronus without facts. And everything she's told us so far has helped."

Archie folded his arms, scowling at their team leader, but it was hard to argue with logic.

"So, whatever is going with Herry," Jay said, glancing back to where their friend had turned to practically dragging the model up the rocky terrain. "Just... just leave it for now."

"She probably poisoned him," Archie muttered before he could stop himself.

Jay rolled his eyes and sighed. "We'll deal with it after we find Iris. Deal?"

"Yeah, deal," Archie grumbled.

"Good," Jay said, looking relieved-at least minutely.

"Hey!" Atlanta's voice rang through the air. "Huckle-buckle-beanstalk!"

Archie and Jay exchanged bemused looks of confusion as Teresa's laugh danced on the breeze towards them.

"Does that mean they found it?" Herry asked, coming up behind them with Neil hanging like a sack of potatoes under his arm.

"Can we go to the beach now?" Neil asked, looking hopeful.

...:..:...

"Wow," Archie commented, his irritation with his teammates lost for a moment as he stared down the dark hole at the new problem in front of them. "This thing looks like it'd go all the way to China."

"Considering we're near China, I think it'd probably go to Mexico," Odie pointed out as he typed away on one of his gadgets. "But, yeah, general gist."

"How far down do you think it goes?" Teresa asked, earning her sarcastic smirks from Archie and Atlanta. "I mean, in _real_ measurements."

"Its hard to tell," Odie reported.

"Well, throw one of those Hephaestus glow sticks down there," Atlanta suggest. "At least then we'll be able to see the bottom."

"Theoretically," Odie said, folding his arms.

"It's the best shot we have," Jay said.

Sighing at the thought of losing one of his glowsticks, Odie dug deeply into his bag and cracked one of the long-lasting tubes of light. Then dropped it into the whole.

All seven teens craned their necks to watch it shrink further and further into darkness. Until, finally, a small clink sound rose to their ears. Archie let out a whistle and Odie nodded. Before turning to his bag and pulling out his laptop. "Right, then," he said absently as he typed away at the keys, looking up after a moment with raised eyebrows and a smirk. "Who's up for repelling twenty stories into a dark pit?"

...:..:...

"So... who's going over the edge and into the dark hole first?" Neil asked, peering down at what he considered to be certain doom as Odie pulled two sets of gear out of his bag.

"I'll do it," Atlanta said, shrugging when she got several wary glances. "What? It's not like this is the worst thing we've faced."

"That we know of," Jay warned, circling the pit a little as he pinched his chin in thought.

"Oh, c'mon! It's rock climbing!" Atlanta declared with a grin before lunging for the gear. "Bring it on!"

"Hey, you're not going down there alone," Archie pointed out, quickly grabbing the second set of harnesses and tethers.

Atlanta snorted. "Right, because you're totally the rock-climbing type," she said with a chuckle. "Alright! Race ya down!"

"Wait-Atlanta!" But even before Archie could lock his harness, she'd jumped into the hole.

_**A/N:**__ I know, I know, FINALLY! lol I'd been trying to get it longer, honestly, for this segment. Just so I wouldn't have to continue from the desert again *sigh* Oh well. Sadly I've been working most of the day to get this anywhere near readable, but I'm currently fighting my annual season-change illness. So my brain's fuzzier than usual. Hopefully I haven't created too many errors lol_

_*oh yeah, studying up on the lineage of the royal family of Troy (you know, Hector and Paris and such) one side of their family was descendant from a river god the other from Hephaestus :shrug:_

_And of course now we start to see the effects of Aphrodite's drink..._


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"Huh."

Archie stopped in his downward movement, bumping into the wall a little as he fought to keep purchase. Maybe five feet below him, Atlanta had stopped too. The redhead was looking around the cavern with a look that seemed lost in thought.

"What's up?" he called to her.

She looked up, but she might as well have been several miles away for all the vacancy in her expression. It quickly faded, though, and she smirked and pointed past his shoulder. "That way," she answered. "But we're supposed to be heading down."

The purple-haired teen groaned and rolled his eyes as she chortled, but he'd walked into that one.

"But," she continued, looking downward again. "I think we have a problem."

"And that is?" Archie asked, repelling down another hop to her side.

"We're out of rope."

" ," Archie drawled slowly. "So, now what do we do?"

Atlanta shrugged, looking back towards the glow stick. "Jump?"

"You're joking right?" Archie asked with a laugh of disbelief.

"Well it's not like we have alot of options," Atlanta pointed out as she started fishing around in her pockets. A moment later she'd produced a small booklet of sticky notes.

"We've got another... what? Twenty feet left to go?" Archie commented. "Guess we're coming back later."

"Oh don't be such a wimp," Atlanta scoffed, smiling in a way that bespoke trouble as she pulled out her communicator. "We just have to improvise."

"You're joking, right?" Archie asked flatly, even though he already knew the question was pointless.

"Hey, Jay?" Atlanta called into the device.

Instantly the teen's face appeared on the small screen. "Yeah?"

"We're gonna have to be inventive," she warned him.

Jay frowned. "How inventive?"

Atlanta looked up towards the wonky circle of sky above them, then down towards the glow stick. "When I say so, cut my rope."

"What?!" both Archie and Jay yelped.

She let out a disgusted sigh. "Boys are such babies," she muttered, pinching her nose before turning her attention back to the screen. "We'll be fine! Besides, if Cronus dropped her in here, then he's probably planning something bigger, right?"

"Or he's luring us into a trap," Archie pointed out. "We probably shouldn't be going down here in the first place."

"Thank you, Jonny Raincloud," Atlanta quipped. "Either way, we're half-way there!"

"But at least that first half wouldn't have killed us," Archie pointed out.

"Seriously, Jay, if we don't do this, then we might not be ready for whatever Cronus is planning," Atlanta reasoned. "We don't have the time to find another choice."

"I don't like it," Jay informed her after a moment. "But you're right."

"Score!" Atlanta cheered, grinning broadly though Archie looked like he wanted to take up the dispute again.

"So what are we doing?" Jay asked, sounding a little tired.

"Give me a sec and I'll let you know," Atlanta advised, then moved to grab hold of Archie's line. "Alright," she said to him, flashing a smile that usually hinted at a dangerous idea. "Let's see if this actually works!"

It took a moment or two, but soon the redhead had managed to hook her own harness onto Archie's line, transferring her weight to the taught rope before she began. She worked quickly to tie the ends of the rope together, using a double fisherman's knot first and then an overhand knot for good measure.

"You think it'll hold us?" Archie asked, looking at the knot skeptically.

"Hope so," Atlanta said with a shrug. "Otherwise this might be a one-way trip."

"Thanks for _that_ image," he muttered.

"Oh shut up," she scoffed, wrinkling her nose at him, then turned back to her communicator. "Alright, Jay! Let 'er go!"

"You're sure?"

"Jay!"

He grumbled a bit, but there were other voices that chattered on behind him and soon Teresa was the one who shouted back to them as her former rope went slack. "Look out below!"

The rope narrowly missed them as its end swung above the glove, basking strangely in the light of the glowstick.

Taking a deep breath, Atlanta readjusted her equipment and lowered herself onto the new extension. It was a little nerve-wracking, but she'd be lying if she said that the adrenalin didn't make her smile.

"See?" she said, smiling up at Archie.

Archie rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Just get moving so we can get out of here."

Chuckling, Atlanta continued moving. It didn't take long for the duo to scoot further down the bound ropes towards the glow stick, and soon they could actually make out the shape of what looked like a tawny work glove.

"Kinda clashes with Cronus's style, don't ya think?" Atlanta commented with a snort.

"Makes you wonder why he got it in the first place," Archie grumbled. "Why put her in a glove? And what's all that around it?"

Atlanta glanced back down at the strange shimmering substance on three sides of the glove and glow stick. "Dunno," she admitted with a frown. "Water, maybe?"

This time Archie was the one who let out an incredulous snort. "Well at least it landed on the rock."

"Seriously," Atlanta agreed. "Otherwise I'd hope that Odie brought a fishing pole."

Archie hummed in agreement, but his gaze was taken with the strange way the darkness moved around the rock ledge. "I don't think it's water."

"What _else_ could it be?" Atlanta scoffed, but she looked down too.

Something was definitely off about that... fluid below them. Frowning, Archie pulled out another glowstick from his belt, cracked it, and let it fall.

It landed with a strange splat that assured the teens it definitely wasn't a firm substance below. But as they watched, the light was slowly covered in what looked like dark bubbles.

"Oh, grosse!" Atlanta yelped, holding more securely to the line. "Leaches!"

If there was anything she really could say she was squeamish about, it'd be leaches. Just the thought of those slimy little blood-suckers made her cringe.

"Maybe we should've asked Odie for a fishing pole," Archie mumbled as he stared down.

"What do we do?" Atlanta demanded. "We can't leave without the glove!"

"Yeah, I know," Archie acknowledged, already calculating what he'd have to do. "I'm working on it."

It took a moment of strange maneuvering, but soon enough he'd pulled his whip free from his belt.

"What are you doing? Doesn't that just cut things up?" Atlanta asked, eying the weapon skeptically.

"Generally," Archie admitted as he adjusted the instrument Ares had given him on the day of joining the team. "But it's got a grabbing claw on the end. It can work kinda like a grappling hook or grabber claw... if I can get it to work right..."

Atlanta raised an eyebrow at him, clearly waiting to see it before she believed it, then looked back down at the problem below them. "Well you better figure it out quick," she advised him. "Those things are aiming for Iris."

He muttered a response, but was too busy adjusting the settings to actually focus on conversation. With a victorious grunt, he pulled the cord longer and started flicking it like a fishing line towards the glove.

It was like a carnival game, with every toss of the whip Archie's heart would somersault. It took seven tries, along with Atlanta's continual shouts of the encroaching leeches, for the hooks to latch onto the glove.

"Yes!" he hissed.

"Great," Atlanta cheered. "Now pull her up and let's get out of here!"

Archie nodded, already retracting the long metal cord and luring the glove upward.

She met his gaze to smile when Archie tucked the glove into his hoodie's pocket. But Atlanta gaze went back down as they started to climb. She couldn't hold back at least some of her scream. It was bad enough that those slimy little... things had created a pool down below, but now-they were climbing the cavern walls!

"Archie! Move!" She demanded.

"Working on it," was his grumbled response, though he did seem to propel himself faster up the rope.

It definitely helped create some distance, but Atlanta was soon pulling out her communicator anyway. "Guys!" she called into the blue electronic box. "Start pulling us up!"

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of 'rock climbing'?" Neil responded, and Atlanta could see him making air quotation marks behind Jay's shoulder.

"Neil!" She snapped, struggling as she tried to climb the rope and hold the device at the same time.

"What's happening?" Jay asked.

"Really fast moving leach things," Archie shouted before Atlanta could.

"And they're gaining on us," Atlanta agreed.

"They're _what_?" Teresa yelped as Jay, with a nod, ducked off screen.

"Really fast, grosse things," Atlanta responded, glancing towards the closest rock face. Nothing was on level with her yet, but they weren't more than a couple yards lower!

The rope lurched, making both teens scramble to hold on tighter as they began to rise from the dark hole thanks to their teammates. And, though they'd known it had taken a while to get down there, it seemed to be taking forever to get to a point where they could see without a glow stick. Even with their urgent climbing coupled with their friends' effort. But a few minutes after that, they could see the sky and hear their friends' effort to pull the line.

Almost not soon enough, Archie and Atlanta flung themselves onto the fantastically warm sand.

"Oh my god!" Teresa gasped, looking into the hole. "What-what is that?!"

"No species of leach I've ever seen," Odie muttered by her side, frowning as the living shimmer stayed just beyond the light.

"Did you get the glove?" Jay asked, kneeling next to Archie and Atlanta.

"Yeah," Archie breathed, sitting up. It took him a minute to maneuver, but he managed to pull the glove free by just the handle of the whip. "I don't know if I recommend touching it, but... She's in there somehow... I think."

"Right," Jay said slowly, looking the glove over as he took the device from his teammate's grip. He glanced towards Odie, hoping for the intelligent teen's input, but the shorter boy was fiddling furiously with his electronics with a frown on his face. Never a good sign. "Well, then," he continued, pulling his attention back to the glove, "let's get her back to Olympus. Maybe Hera knows how to get her free."

...:..:...

The flash of light and whizzing noise that assaulted them was almost as welcome as the air conditioned room that followed, but neither compared to the cushions Hermes had kindly left on what few benches were in the room. With groans of relief, the teens dropped onto the pillows to rest. Though, Neil turned every which way for a few minutes, still admiring himself in the surface of one of the opal they'd brought back with them.

"I doubt it will be long before Cronus figures out we got her out of the pit," Jay announced, pinching his chin as he thought. "Maybe a day, tops. We should really-."

"Relax," Neil drawled, relaxing against the cushions while he swung the opal around to see himself better. "We got Iris back. All we have to do is convince her to come back out of the glove so she can take the blue wha-cha-ma-call-it and Kronus won't take over the world. No big!"

Atlanta and Teresa exchanged glances before rolling their eyes. Odie, though, shared a glance with Jay. "Uh, yeah, well I've gotta go," Odie said, adjusting his glasses. "To-uh-check the results of some tests I was running. Catch you guys later!"

"Yeah, and I'll take Iris over to Hera," Jay offered, quickly taking the glove from Archie. "She'll probably know how to get Iris out of it."

Without another word, the two teens practically bolted from the room, leaving their teammates to rest in confusion on the cushions. Neither aware of Archie's suspicious frown.

"What happened?" Jay asked lowly as he and Odie sped through the opulent marble halls.

Odie glanced at him for a moment, clearly not enjoying that he'd been called out, but he sighed and tried to keep up their pace. "The alarms," he explained. "The ones around the stone, something set them off. But..."

"But?" Jay prompted, frowning.

"It-something's not right," Odie relented, shaking his head.

"Not right how?" Jay demanded, pulling his teammate to a halt.

Odie shook his head again and tugged his arm free. "I... I don't know yet," he said, his brown eyes already calculating behind his glasses. "Look, I'll talk to you after I check, okay?"

"Right," Jay agreed, his frown deepening, but he looked down to the foreign weapon in his hand. "I'll talk with Hera. We'll meet at your room in twenty minutes."

The shorter boy gave Jay a lopsided smirk as he nodded. Jay nodded back before Odie turned to sprint the rest of the way to the portal back to the moral world. He stared at the shimmering doorway for a moment before looking down at what he held again. Sighing, he adjusted his hold, gripping the glove firmly in his hand rather than the handle of Archie's whip.

But that had been a mistake.

Jay had barely made it three steps closer to the door of Hera's atrium when it happened. Instantaneous flashes filled his vision, replacing the world around him with... well... silent movies was probably the best way to describe it. Short clips of action passed in front of his eyes.

He could see a girl with a strange sheen to her, much like the glove had, glaring at Cronus. That same girl being hit by an attack. Cronus holding the glove as it gave off a bright glow. The pit they'd found her in. The team going to the rescue, which he had to admit was strange even if it only lasted for a few seconds.

The next scene, though, he hadn't been expecting. He saw... Harper. Looking over her shoulder, back at their dorm building. Next came a portal leading to some field of ruins. Followed by a large blue stone passing from a smaller hand to a larger one. Then Cronus was holding the stone up as he-.

"Jay! Wake up!"

A sharp sting on his cheek sent Jay curling quickly to his side in an attempt to get to his feet, tripping a little as he wondered how he'd ended up on the floor in the first place, to find Archie kneeling next to him.

The purple haired teen eyed Jay with mild relief and wariness as he got to his feet, too. "You okay?"

Jay gave a shaky nod, leaning back against the wall as his eyes searched the ground. The glove was lying a few feet away, as though it had been kicked there. And, judging by the strange ache in his fingers, it probably had been. Realizing what that meant, Jay sighed. "So that's what Teresa goes through, huh?" he muttered, giving a little huff of a laugh. "Believe me, she can have it."

"Wha-You saw visions?" Archie croaked, his eyes going wide.

Again Jay nodded, but he was definitely regaining a grip on his whits and moved to pick up the glove again-though this time he was sure to grip only the whip handle instead of the fabric itself. "I think," he said slowly, holding the glove at arm's length, "it might be her way of communicating."

Folding his arms, Archie raised an eyebrow. "What? How do you figure that?"

"Because Iris doesn't speak."

The teens jumped to attention and spun to face the goddess as Hera joined them in the hall. She was carrying a small potted flower that she must have gotten water for, as far as either boy could tell, but she eyed them with interest. "She relays messages as visions," the goddess explained. "Sometimes with sound, but most often they are just displaced images. Now, am I correct in thinking that this means you've found her?"

"Uh, more or less," Archie said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as Jay held the glove forward.

Hera's eyebrows rose up her forehead as she stared between the boys and the strange prison they held. She frowned as she took the glove from them, returning the weapon to its rightful owner as she examined Iris's predicament.

"She's tired out now," Hera commented, her frown deepening before she looked to Jay. "What'd she tell you?"

The teen shrugged under the gaze of both the goddess and his teammate. "Basically that Cronus kidnapped her so that we'd get her," he said. "And... so he'd get the Blue Chalcedony."

"Well that was a dumb move," Archie scoffed. "He can't get in here, let alone into Hera's room."

Hera looked to Jay with a raised eyebrow. "Indeed," she commented. "Well, now that we have Iris back, I believe it's safe to say that there is very little chance of him getting to use it. Well done, to all of you." She turned to leave, but paused to look back with a smile that seemed to hold a different meaning behind it. "Perhaps you should all enjoy the rest of your vacation. Maybe spend time as a team."

"Right, uh, yeah," Jay answered awkwardly. "Yeah, we'll... we'll do that."

The goddess nodded and continued on her way, but Jay couldn't help feeling tense. The visions were bothering him, had Iris been trying to warn him?

"So," Archie drawled, looking at him curiously. "I'll tell the girls, Herry, and Neil we're allowed a vacation?"

"Uh, yeah," Jay said quickly. "Yeah, sounds good. I'll go grab Odie."

Archie nodded, jogging off back to where they'd left their teammates. Jay quickly made his way to follow the route Odie had taken earlier. If nothing else, he had a few questions and only the genius of their team could answer them.

_**A/N:**__ Wow, I'm so so sorry! Life kinda got... uh... complicated since my last chapter. Yes, I've been working on other stories, but my creative time has been slow as sludge. Hopefully everything in here reads well... Again I'm sorry for the wait. But since we're heading into the problem area of this story, maybe it'll work out faster! ^_^_


End file.
